At the Australian Open at the beginning of 2024, the climax of Chinese tennis is quietly coming, and the Rod Laver Stadium welcomed a number of Chinese players on January 25, Zheng Qinwen faced Ukraine's Yastremska in the women's singles semifinals, Zhang Zhizhen partnered with Czech player Makhac, and the men's doubles No. 2 seeds Bopana/Eberden in the semifinals, and Li Na, the women's singles champion of the Australian Open 10 years ago, appeared in the senior tournament. Of these three matches, the most eye-catching is undoubtedly the women's singles semifinals of China's post-00 teenager Zheng Qinwen.
Looking at the top 4 of this year's Australian Open women's singles, Sabalenka was born in 1998, and the other three players are all post-00 players, so many people say that the women's players in this year's Australian Open have entered the youth storm mode. A large number of young players have become the protagonists of the arena and have unleashed their youth.
For Chinese tennis, maybe 10 years is a cycle. Ten years ago, Chinese tennis player Li Na won her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, and 10 years later, Li Na was invited by the organizers to participate in the senior tournament. Li Na returned to Melbourne this year, and on January 25, she once again stepped on the familiar tennis court. Ten years later, Zheng Qinwen also shined at the Australian Open. Like Li Na, Zheng Qinwen and she are both from Hubei, and unlike Li Na, Zheng Qinwen, who reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, does not know if he can make history again at the Australian Open.
Zheng Qinwen is very talented in tennis, and in the 2020 season, she participated in the first adult professional tennis tournament, and won the women's singles championship of the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour W15 Cordennons that year, and the world ranking also entered the top 300 that year. In the 2022 season, Zheng Qinwen reached the last 16 of the women's singles at the French Open and won three consecutive matches against the world's top 40 players. She also reached No. 46 in the world rankings and was voted WTA Rookie of the Year, which has a lot of anticipation for her 2023 tournament.
In the 2023 season, Zheng Qinwen stopped in the second round of the women's singles at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year. In the French Open in May, Zheng Qinwen missed the top 32 of the women's singles, and stopped in the second round of two consecutive Grand Slams. In June 2023, Zheng Qinwen terminated his two-year cooperation with coach Riba, and the new coach was replaced by Belgium's Vivio Fissert. In the Wimbledon tournament in July, Zheng Qinwen stopped in the first round of the women's singles. At the US Open in September, Zheng Qinwen entered the top 8 and refreshed his best result in the history of a Grand Slam tournament. On December 3, Zheng Qinwen announced that he would re-cooperate with coach Riba.
At the beginning of last year, Zheng Qinwen was in a particularly confident state, but the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment, she did not find her own balance, and all her self-confidence turned into invisible pressure. In the first half of the competition, Zheng Qinwen's results were very unsatisfactory. Before the Australian Open semifinals, Zheng Qinwen said that after a year of training, she slowly calmed down and gradually knew what kind of thinking she should have in order to become a better player.
Zheng Qinwen ushered in a huge turning point in his career after changing his coach last year, and even despite the five victories in the Hangzhou Asian Games, Zheng Qinwen also achieved an excellent record of 15 wins and 3 losses under the guidance of his new coach. Before the semi-finals, tennis superstar Ivan was particularly optimistic about Zheng Qinwen, and the commentator of Eurosport said that Zheng Qinwen's performance has improved by leaps and bounds under the careful guidance of coach Riba, and he is very much looking forward to the performance of Chinese teenagers. The host in the studio directly called Zheng Qinwen a superstar.
This season, Zheng Qinwen has set a "small goal" for himself: to enter the top 10 in the women's singles in the world ranking. However, she herself did not expect to achieve this goal so quickly. Although it seems easy for Zheng Qinwen to enter the top 10 in the world to outsiders, in fact, Zheng Qinwen has also encountered many setbacks before. Last year, Zheng Qinwen couldn't make a breakthrough in Grand Slam tournaments, and her coach broke her contract after working with her for a few weeks. But in the doubts of the outside world, Zheng Qinwen has been trained and grown in setbacks, and only she knows best how difficult it is to enter the top ten in the world.
In this year's Australian Open, a total of 7 Chinese female players entered the Australian Open women's singles main draw, Zheng Qinwen is the highest ranked in the world, ranking 13th, and she also participated in the Australian Open as the No. 12 seed. In the first round, Zheng Qinwen defeated American player Kruger 3:6, 6:2, 6:3, and in the second round, Zheng Qinwen defeated British player Usain Bolt 6:3 in two rounds, reaching the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in his career. In the third round, Zheng Qinwen defeated teammate Wang Yafan with a score of 2:1, and in the fourth round, Zheng Qinwen defeated France's Dodin with a score of 2:0 to enter the top 8 of women's singles.
Luck will always be with those who have been working hard. Zheng Qinwen's semi-region at this Australian Open has been unpopular, and a number of strong players have been eliminated, from the top 8 to the semifinals, Zheng Qinwen's opponents are all unseeded players. In the quarter-finals, Zheng's opponent, Karinskaya, defeated her in 2022, when Zheng lost in three sets. But in this competition, Zheng Qinwen completed his revenge and showed the super psychological quality of an excellent player. After losing the tie-break in the first set, Zheng Qinwen did not give her opponent another chance in the second and third sets, and she used her extremely aggressive style of play to win the last two sets 6:3 and 6:1 to enter the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Zheng Qinwen's opponent in the semifinals, Yastremska, is currently ranked 93rd in the world and is the biggest dark horse in this tournament. She made it all the way from the qualifying rounds to the semi-finals, becoming the fifth qualifier to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam and the first qualifier to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open since 1978. In the quarterfinals, Yastremska swept world star Azarenka 2-0. However, Zheng Qinwen and Yastremska have no previous record of fighting, but according to outside analysis, Zheng Qinwen has a greater chance of winning with a strong forehand and stable serve, and there is even big data analysis that Zheng Qinwen's probability of winning is about 70%.
After the start of the semi-finals, Zheng Qinwen played steadily, although Yastremska started the first set 2-0, Zheng Qinwen gradually improved after 3-3 level and finally won the first set with 64. In the second set, Zheng Qinwen also continued to play well and won with a score of 6:4, thus ending the Australian Open's biggest dark horse with a big score of 2:0.
This is the first time Zheng Qinwen has reached the final of a Grand Slam women's singles, and she has received at least 1.725 million Australian dollars, equivalent to 8.12 million yuan. This is the best reward for Zheng Qinwen's hard work, and it is also the best reward for her continuous efforts. The Women's Singles final will be held on 27 January at 16:30 against Aryna Sabalenka. We wish Zheng Qinwen another great result in the Australian Open final and write a new history for Chinese tennis.