From singles to doubles, from the People's Liberation Army to the national team, from the national team, three in and two out, along the way, Zheng Yu has attached a lot of special and exclusive labels. These labels either have a scalding tingling sensation or a soothing healing feeling. Sometimes, she resists being labeled and bravely tears off her label. But when she finally grew into a women's doubles player who could stand alone, she found that it was these labels that witnessed her growth.
Take off the half-way label
Zheng Yu's home is in Jinan, Shandong, and when he was in elementary school, his parents signed Zheng Yu up for many extracurricular interest classes, including painting, swimming, table tennis, etc. However, Zheng Yu never insisted on a certain item for a long time, even badminton, she once gave up when she first learned. At that time, there were only two girls in the training class, and Zheng Yu was the youngest, and it wasn't long before she habitually felt bored and shelved.
After half a year of free days, Zheng Yu, who is active by nature, has repeatedly been "complained" by the teacher: "This child can't sit still in class, it is very easy to lose his mind, and he can know what is blowing outside, but he does not like to listen to the lessons." As a result, Zheng Yu was brought back to the badminton training class, first, her parents very much hoped that she could practice a sport, and second, it was just to cure her old love of wandering.
When he was eight or nine years old, Zheng Yu was recommended to train at a junior sports school in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, along with another girl of the same age. Schools are boarding, but they are not yet at the point where they can take care of themselves. For the sake of their children, the two families decided to personally go to Zhenjiang as a "companion", rented a house outside the school, and parents of both sides took turns to take care of their children in Zhenjiang, which lasted for more than a year. In the eyes of his parents, Zheng Yu has hardly succeeded in learning a sport since he was a child, and badminton has rarely been adhered to, so although life is not easy, they are still willing to work hard.
In Zhenjiang, Zheng Yu began systematic badminton training. As she began to grow taller and her abilities slowly rose, she began to find a sense of belonging in training confrontations and outings, which was the desire to win and the sense of accomplishment after winning. Throughout the juvenile stage, the reason that supported Zheng Yu's persistence has always been this sense of winning, and the difficulty of her parents that she vaguely feels.
She doesn't want to be called a "half-way girl" by others.
Labeled as a military player
In 2007, Coach Chen Weihua of the Bayi badminton team went to Zhenjiang for a meeting, and by chance saw Zheng Yu practicing ball, he felt that this child was a good seedling, so he invited her to participate in the selection of the Bayi team. When she received this invitation, Zheng Yu hardly hesitated, at that time she could not think of the hardships of the army, could not think of her future road, and thought of only two words: soldier and Lin Dan.
"In my impression, being a soldier is a very sacred and honorable thing, which is what I have felt since I was a child. If I go to the Bayi team, then I can be both a soldier and a ball, which is very good! Moreover, I can tell people that Lin Dan is my brother! After many years, Zheng Yu is still deeply impressed by the excitement of that year.
After passing the selection of the Bayi team, Zheng Yu went to Shenzhen for half a year because of his young age, which was equivalent to the third-line junior team of Bayi. By participating in the results of that year's National Junior Championship, Zheng Yu came to the second-tier team of the Bayi team, the place she would be most familiar with in the future - Fuzhou Tongpanshan Base.
At that time, the first and second team members of the Bayi women's team were training together, and they were led by the famous chen Weihua. Chen Weihua's strictness with the team members is notorious, coupled with the disciplined management of the troops, Zheng Yu, who has just arrived in Tongpanshan, has not been scolded less, yesterday was poor internal hygiene, today is a loose discipline, tomorrow may be not serious about eating.
In order to ensure nutrition, Coach Chen Weihua requires the team members to eat eggs and milk every day for breakfast, and Xiao Zhengyu knows what nutrition is, only knows that boiled eggs are not delicious, and always wants to pass the pass. After being discovered many times, Coach Chen Weihua, who originally did not have breakfast in the canteen, simply stayed in the canteen and stared at Zheng Yu after eating breakfast before leaving.
As he grew older, Zheng Yu got rid of the childishness when he first entered the team and gradually became a seriously trained female soldier. In 2010, she exchanged her achievements for her military uniform, and finally officially enlisted in the army and became a soldier. To this day, even though the Bayi badminton team has been disbanded, Zheng Yu's education and creed in the Bayi team have been influencing her: the collective is greater than the individual, all actions are under the command, never give up, never say defeat.
Take off the label of the Bayi women's singles
In those fledgling years, Zheng Yu let everyone know through singles matches, especially in the Badminton Super League. However, Zheng Yu did not go well when he first started, and he had two goals and two exits from the national team in just three years. He joined the team for the first time at the end of 2010, left at the end of 2011 due to a transfer, returned to the national team in mid-2012, and left for the second time after the 2013 National Games.
From the end of 2013 to the end of 2017, in this entire cycle of the National Games, Zheng Yu's time was all left to Tongpanshan. "That period of time was too long to go up, and I didn't play well anymore." Looking at the same batch of players in China who are either already in the national team or have retired to study, they often want to give up, very negative, and do not know where the way out is. Zheng Yu recalled.
However, during this relatively dark period, the coach did not give up on this "big player" and still pushed Zheng Yu with the attitude of spurring the small team. This seemingly lost four years has also become a time when Zheng Yu unconsciously brewed great changes.
At that time, there were too few people of the same age or level in the team, zheng yu was difficult to find a women's singles can play a confrontation, plus the Bayi women's team has always been a single and double training, sharing the plan, Zheng Yu will occasionally participate in the training and confrontation of women's doubles. The success of his beloved apprentice Li Xuerui is enlightening to Chen Weihua, and Zheng Yu and Li Xuerui are both tall and powerful types, so he has been cultivating Zheng Yu in the way of cultivating Li Xuerui, trying to make her single and all-powerful.
In fact, Zheng Yu has not played women's doubles since he was a child, but he has not been systematically trained. Until the 2017 National Games approaching, because the team already has Li Xuerui, Li Yun, Ji Shuting, Zhang Yiman and many other women's singles, and the team has always been a strong singles doubles weak structure, out of the need to prepare for the battle, Zheng Yu began to contact the real women's doubles training and competition.
At the 2017 National Games, Zheng Yu's doubles did not lose in the team preliminaries, and he also won one game in the team final stage, and the team finally won the seventh place in the women's team. In the individual event, she lost to Gao Fangjie of Jiangsu in the women's singles 16-8. Looking back now, it turned out to be her women's singles curtain call.
Labeled as a national feather women's doubles
After the National Games, Zheng Yu did not plan to retire, the reason is very clear and specific - the Military Games two years later. Zheng Yu's idea at that time was: in the last two years, another top. Unexpectedly, the national team held a women's doubles training at this time, and Zheng Yu got this opportunity. When he heard the words "women's doubles", Zheng Yu's mind was full of question marks, all doubts about himself. Although it was not a surprise, it was always an opportunity, and Zheng Yu came to Beijing with the mentality of trying it out.
Although the whole training process did not increase Zheng Yu's self-confidence, her overall ability and characteristics were affirmed by the coach, and she also became one of the five players selected for the national team. On November 16, 2017, Zheng Yu clearly remembers this day, which was the third time she entered the national team, and it was also the first time she knocked on the door of the national team as a doubles player.
Zheng Yu's women's singles career has many regrets, and he entered the national team at a very young age, but he has never had any bright results. This time the women's doubles turn is completely like a rebirth, and the span is like a self-crushing and reshaping. On the occasion of farewell and rebirth, Zheng Yu said to himself before entering the training hall as a member of the women's doubles team for the first time: "Women's doubles Zheng Yu, say goodbye to the women's singles Zheng Yu!" ”
When he first entered the team, the high intensity of national team training and the new dimension of women's doubles training made Zheng Yu unable to eat, eat thoroughly, and keep up. At the beginning of the training, she felt that she had all the skills of women's singles in her hands, without the rhythm of women's doubles, and even some of the terms in the training plan could not be understood.
The coaches clearly felt Zheng Yu's confusion and tried to help her understand herself and position herself. Coach Zhang Jun, Coach Pan Li, Coach Tao Jiaming, coach Zhao Yunlei took turns to do ideological work for Zheng Yu, and the central idea was very simple, that is, to see their own advantages. But it is difficult to accept himself, and in a completely unfamiliar new field, Zheng Yu habitually understands all his characteristics as shortcomings.
For the sentence "The shortcomings you think can also become your characteristics, and even your advantages", Zheng Yu spent a long time to understand.
Take off the label of traditional women's doubles
The women's singles turn to women's doubles is a very exploratory move, as the first batch of "pilot players", Zheng Yu has completely played his experimental nature to the extreme in the past four years. Some people say that she is strange, that she is awkward, and some people say that she is innovative, that she has characteristics. If you think about it, isn't it all the same thing? Zheng Yu played a different women's doubles.
Back attack front seal?
As a typical offensive player, Zheng Yu's offensive ability is beyond doubt, but when Zheng Yu and Li Wenmei officially formed a fixed combination at the end of 2018, many people began to wonder whether this combination was feasible, and how should the two backcourt players build up?
When they first cooperated, Zheng Yu and Li Wenmei were accustomed to the first reaction of retreating, but both of them had the second reaction that I wanted to go forward, and their tacit understanding in the early stage of cooperation was really not good. Through the run-in and communication of training, the two reached a consensus, Zheng Yu went to the front of the network to organize more, and the two communicated on the field by shouting more simple words, and the situation slowly improved.
At the 2018 Fuzhou Open, Zheng Yu/Li Wenmei became the only seedling of the Chinese women's doubles in the top eight; at the 2020 Malaysia Masters, the national women's doubles achieved the final meeting, and Zheng Yu/Li Wenmei won the high-level event championship for the first time; at the 2021 National Games, they, as the core of the Hubei women's team, helped the team win the gold medal of the women's team, and then won the bronze medal in the women's doubles in the individual event.
In contrast, Li Wenmei / Zheng Yu certainly has very different styles, but both are women's singles, and the new women's doubles they are composed of are doomed to be difficult to imitate and difficult to learn from. Although the advantage in front of the net weakened, they achieved double the offensive firepower, whether it was a single point attack or a rotation attack, there was a multiplied threat. Arguably, they pioneered a new style of women's doubles.
Backhand serve?
Serve has always been a major point of controversy on Zheng Yu's body, whenever the game is live Zheng Yu serves with a forehand, especially after losing points, there will always be comments in the comment area that are not familiar with the world: why not serve with a backhand? Players of the national team do not serve backhand? Forehand serves are too inferior!
Zheng Yu has never denied that her backhand serve is the bottom level in the women's doubles group, she has been working hard to practice the backhand serve since entering the women's doubles group, but the deep-rooted women's singles forehand serve for more than ten years has always been her comfort zone, especially in the game, under the pressure of key points, sometimes she does worry that her backhand serve will go off the net and will be high. But in fact, this is more of a mental culprit in her heart, giving herself a negative psychological hint.
Indeed, there are very few players who serve with a forehand in doubles, and after the serve rule is changed to a height limit of 1.15 meters, Zheng Yu also has to adapt to a stride that is not good. But is doubles the same as a backhand serve? This is just the inertia of most people who do this. The reason why backhand serves are common in doubles is because backhand serves help the technical and tactical use of serves, but the serve must ultimately be reflected in the final score. For Zheng Yu, the positive benefits of forehand serves, especially the psychological cues, are stronger.
Taking a step back, the forehand serve will make the opponent less accustomed to the rhythm of receiving the serve, especially the action of the forehand serve will be more hidden, and the quality of the forehand serve can indeed play a certain restrictive role. Of course, there will be corresponding problems with forehand serves, but for Zheng Yu, this is a better choice under existing circumstances.
Maybe in her heart she hid ten thousand words of "whoever says doubles should do whatever", but she never refuted it, never cared. She knows she still has a lot to improve, and she just wants to focus on her serve and play her own style.
Very "eating" teammates?
Since 2018, Zheng Yu began to play in the international women's doubles field, first playing the role of a dark horse soldier with Cao Tongwei in the Asian Team Championship that year, and then partnering with Huang Dongping to win the second place in the German Open, in just half a year, she was selected for the Uber Cup and the Asian Games for her unique technical and tactical style.
In recent years, Zheng Yu has competed in international competitions with many partners, successively realizing the dream of world championship in the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup, and winning the women's doubles championship with Huang Dongping in the Danish Super 1000 tournament of the You Cup. Although it is possible to block the mouth of the yo-yo when she plays well, whenever she plays poorly, those "resource theories" and "thigh-hugging theories" will emerge.
At the beginning of the year, the women's doubles team of Guoyu was reorganized, and the women's doubles composed of Zheng Yu and young player Zhang Shuxian suddenly emerged in the case of low expectations, and successively reached the final four of the German Open and the final of the All England Open, which shined. Partner young general to fight, Zheng Yu does not have the mentality of relying on her partner, she clearly knows that she is the psychological dependence of the young general. "Do yourself as well as possible on the field, so that Shuxian has no worries and can be fully released", this is Zheng Yu's voice as a senior, but also a spur to himself, but also to give his partner the confidence to play freely.
At the All England Open, they dragged their tired bodies all the way to a bloody battle, and finally won the runner-up. The classic scene after the bitter victory in the semi-finals is touching: Zhang Shuxian buried his head in Zheng Yu's arms, and Zheng Yu comforted Zhang Shuxian with his hands from behind, although there was a tear in his eyes, but he still looked forward firmly.
As a women's doubles "novice", Zheng Yu has learned a lot from his predecessor Tang Jinhua or the familiar Huang Dongping, Jia Yifan, Li Wenmei and even many young generals. She never considered herself a "thigh", she just thanked those "thighs" who helped her and taught herself how to become a "thigh".
Label yourself as striving for confidence
Zheng Yu said that he is an optimistic and confident person, but on the pitch it only applies to women's singles. After entering the national women's doubles group, she tasted the sweetness of the opponent's unfamiliarity with herself when she first went out to play, but as she was studied, the difficulty of winning began to increase sharply, and it was difficult for her to come up with something new, and she began to be annoyed.
Throughout the Tokyo Olympic Points Race, Zheng Yu was not very satisfied with his performance. When she was most confused, she once found her sister Li Xuerui spitting bitter water: "Sister Xuerui, I am particularly confused now." I wasn't like this when I used to play women's singles, and although the level was average, I was particularly confident and would never doubt myself when I was behind. Now, it's easy for me to doubt myself, and I'll always amplify my problems. ”
Originally, I wanted to seek comfort and encouragement from my sister, but I didn't expect Li Xuerui, who was straight, to poke her sore spot directly: "You are indeed not very good, and the defensive action is not right." "Then it moves seamlessly to the analysis of technology. Although the words are harsh, but the advice is against the ear, Zheng Yu understands the character of his sister.
Since then, Li Xuerui will go to the women's doubles group to observe Zheng Yu's training after training, and return to the house at night to tell Zheng Yu which action and which position is wrong. Not long after, Li Xuerui withdrew from the national team, the new crown epidemic also arrived, and the closed training camp for more than a year also gave the doubles transfer student more time to consolidate the foundation that was not solid, to broaden his doubles thinking, and to polish his technical and tactical level.
More than a year later, when Zheng Yu returned to the international stage, especially when he took on greater responsibilities and set off again, we saw Zheng Yu, who was more confident than before, a Zheng Yu who affirmed himself from the heart and no longer doubted himself too much. In fact, even Zheng Yu himself did not think that he had been in contact with women's doubles for just four years and had become a "veteran" with small team members.
Although she is already the oldest sister in the women's doubles group, Zheng Yu is determined to continue to fight bravely. In fact, after the Uber Cup, she also thought about whether to retire for a moment, but the encouragement and trust of the coach gave her greater confidence.
Before leaving for Europe, Zheng Yu and Zhang Shuxian only practiced together a few times. In Zheng Yu's view, the essence of partnering with young teammates lies in releasing the momentum and characteristics of small players. Therefore, before the game, Zheng Yu would always say: "We will let go of the fight, how you want to play, how you feel comfortable." When the partner loses points on the field, Zheng Yu will always take the lead and say: "It doesn't matter, it's normal." ”
In the past few years, Zheng Yu has also had a lot of time being "thigh-driven", and the potential of Huang Dongping in the 2021 Danish Open is a particularly valuable experience. Therefore, when he became a senior, Zheng Yu also learned to encourage his partner: "I used to blame myself for one or two bad balls, and at this time, a sentence of 'you can' is more effective than a sentence of 'don't make a mistake'." ”
Reject the contradiction of the label
From the introductory chat to today, Zheng Yu unconsciously shaped himself into an image that is learning to be a predecessor. However, since she wants to reject stereotypes and reject labeling, she should naturally overthrow her own personality again.
Teammates call Zheng Yu "sister", and in front of familiar teammates, she always looks like a perfect extroverted social state that is almost crazy. She loves to laugh, she has a sense of camera, and when she sees the camera, she must be better than a scissor hand, so much so that after the British final she replied to me: "You shot me so many scissor hands, and now I think this gesture is very unlucky." 」 The next time I see you, I'm better than '1' and remember! "You say, does she like scissor hands or not?"
She would jokingly tell me, "I don't know what year and month I'm going to be on the cover of a magazine." "I'm sure it's a hundred percent joke. But she also couldn't believe it when she received the cover invitation, and felt like I was "cheating" her until the interview. You say, does she really believe she can be on the cover?
The reason why they played with Jia Yifan and Huang Dongping was that they naturally had something in common and tacit understanding. In front of people, they are always so outgoing and positive; privately, they always have a side that is either fragile, or lonely, or calm, or deep. I believe that Zheng Yu also has a side that can only allow himself to meditate silently and not ask about the world. Just like the evaluation of the predecessor Li Xuerui: Zheng Yu is a contradiction.
There are many stories and labels of Zheng Yu, and it is difficult to narrate and identify one by one in a short cover article. Sometimes, even acquaintances aren't sure what kind of label she can put on her, let alone spectators who occasionally watch her play a ball or two across the screen. But it doesn't matter, she never cares about the labels she is labeled, because labels can only describe people, not define people. If she could, she would prefer her label to be called "Zheng Yu".
This article is an excerpt from the May 2022 issue