Doha round of 16, Dubai station quarterfinals, Indian Wells first game out (lost to Yuan Yue), Miami stop in the third round, Stuttgart stop in the round of 16, Madrid station "one round tour".
The above is Zheng Qinwen's record on the tour after winning the women's singles runner-up at the Australian Open. He didn't make it to any of the finals, and he didn't even make it to the semi-finals. Especially in the clay season, the ups and downs of form and injuries have caused Zheng Qinwen's record to plummet.
While the outside world is generally worried and doubtful about Zheng Qinwen's state, there is also a voice that hopes that she can replace her current coach Pere Ribba. So, should Zheng Qinwen, who is currently in a trough, change his coach?
In fact, in the professional tennis world, it is not new for players to change coaches, and the reasons can be mainly attributed to two categories: the first is that the relationship between players and coaches is broken, and it is difficult to maintain harmony, such as Zheng Qinwen's parting of ways with former coach Fisset, and for example, the "meditation master" Imaz in Djokovic's team many years ago caused dissatisfaction with Becker, Wajda and others;
Zheng Qinwen and coach Riba (right)
After Zheng Qinwen won the women's singles runner-up at the Australian Open, she became the focus of women's tennis in a short period of time, and also became one of the opponents that many players focus on. At the same time, her own shortcomings exposed in the game have become more and more obvious, including the level of serve and the quality of attack have decreased significantly compared with the Australian Open. Even Zheng himself said that after the Australian Open, he was a little too relaxed, lost his desire to play, and was unable to stay focused throughout the match. At this juncture, the role of the coach is very important.
From an objective point of view, if Zheng Qinwen chooses to change coaches immediately or in a short period of time, it is not a wise choice. One of the important reasons is that Riba once worked with her and then separated: in 2021, Riba from Spain became Zheng Qinwen's coach. During his tenure at Riba, Xiao Zheng rose from the top 100 to the top 30 in the world rankings and won the WTA Best Newcomer award at the end of 2022. And the point where the two ended their cooperation was last year's French Open, that is, after the clay season. At the beginning of this year, Zheng Qinwen chose to re-sign Riba. Now that it's clay season again, it would be a repeat of the same mistake to break Riba again just because of the poor results on the tour before the French Open.
Therefore, what Zheng Qinwen needs more at this stage is to have an in-depth communication with Coach Riba and analyze the reasons for his current sluggish state. Is it because of injuries that have affected his form, or is there a problem with his mentality, or is there a need for improvement in technical aspects such as serving? Whether Riba can give Xiao Zheng enough advice and guidance will be crucial. Therefore, Zheng Qinwen still needs to give the current coaching team enough time and patience, but this patience is also limited.
Originally from Spain, Riba specializes in clay battles. If a coach who excels on clay can't coach his players to do well on clay, then Zheng should probably start looking for a new candidate this summer. After all, the competition in professional tennis is cruel, and if Zheng Qinwen still can't find the good luck and good form of the Australian Open at the beginning of the year during the ensuing clay and grass court seasons, perhaps changing coaches will become an option for her to take the initiative to change.
Image source: Xinhua News Agency