On January 25, Beijing time, in the women's singles semifinals of the 2024 Australian Open, Chinese Jinhua Zheng Qinwen once again brought surprises, defeating Astremuska in straight sets and entering the Grand Slam women's singles final for the first time in her career. Chinese players have reached the Grand Slam singles final for the first time in ten years, and Zheng Qinwen, who is only 21 years old, has unlimited potential and even has a chance to surpass Li Na in the future.
Zheng Qinwen set a new career record
Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen has made a leap forward in his three seasons on tour, starting from the initial competition at the lower level, to winning the first victory in the main draw of a Grand Slam, followed by reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in 2023, and reaching the final of a Grand Slam in 2024, ushering in a huge leap in his career.
Zheng Qinwen not only soared in terms of performance, but also followed by a bumper harvest of rankings and prize money. Previously, Zheng Qinwen had a career bonus of $2.95 million, and the biggest prize money of his career was $450,000 in the quarterfinals of the US Open and $380,000 for the runner-up in the Zhuhai Classic. Zheng Qinwen reached the final of this Australian Open in one fell swoop, and according to the prize distribution, Zheng Qinwen will receive at least 1.72 million Australian dollars, a total of more than 8.1 million yuan, which is already the largest bonus income in his career, and if he finally wins the Australian Open, he will receive 3.15 million Australian dollars.
Congratulations! Zheng Qinwen advanced to the Australian Open women's singles final
In addition to the bonus, Zheng Qinwen's ranking has also soared, in 2022, Zheng Qinwen once created a miracle of jumping 300 places in the ranking within a year, so he also got the nickname of "Rocket Girl", entered the TOP100 ranking for the first time in January 2022, entered the TOP50 ranking in June 2022, and entered the top 20 ranking in October 2023 and became the first sister in China. Zheng Qinwen made history again at this year's Australian Open, earning 1,300 points in the final, making him rise to a new personal high of No. 7 in the new week, and also the first time he entered the top 10 rankings, the last time a Chinese player was in the top 10 in singles was Li Na in September 2014.
Copying Li Na's footsteps is expected to surpass idols in the future
The representative of Chinese tennis at its peak is undoubtedly Li Na, and even for a long time is the representative of Asian women's tennis, having reached 4 Grand Slam finals and won two championships in her career.
Li Na's physical talent used to be the top in Asia, and it was also the guarantee of her brilliant results, but now Zheng Qinwen's static talent is even much better than Li Na's, and he has also fulfilled his talent early. Li Na reached the first Grand Slam final at the age of nearly 29, and now Zheng Qinwen has achieved this result at the age of 21, and Zheng Qinwen has surpassed Li Na at the same age.
Another point is the chaos of women's tennis today, Li Na was at her peak with a large number of famous players, with the big and small Wei sisters who dominated the Quartet, as well as Sharapova and other top players in history, Li Na's honor is tantamount to pulling teeth from the tiger's mouth. Nowadays, the women's tennis world is chaotic, and no player has absolute dominance, which has also created conditions for Zheng Qinwen to win more honors, regardless of whether he can win the cup in the end of this Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen has embarked on a right path to surpass his idols.