On the evening of May 14, Beijing time, the Chinese tennis news came that the 28-year-old Zhang Zhizhen swept Monteiro 2-0 and reached the top 8 in Rome. In this way, two Chinese tennis players reached the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time in history, after Zheng Qinwen swept former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka 2-0 and also reached the quarterfinals in Rome. In the history of Chinese tennis, the best result in Rome was Li Na, who finished runner-up in 2012.
郑钦文 2-0 Naomi Osaka
Zheng Qinwen and Japanese tennis sister Naomi Osaka have a wonderful matchup, and the opponent is a four-time Grand Slam winner and the world's top tennis player. Zheng Qinwen withstood the pressure and swept his opponent 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the round of 8 in Rome. The next round opponent was Gauff, who eliminated Badosa 2-1 after dropping a set first. The duel between Zheng Qinwen and Gauff has also attracted much attention, and it is expected that Zheng Qinwen can continue to create surprises.
Zheng Qinwen has made great progress, she is already the first sister of Chinese tennis, she is still very young, her peak has just begun, Osaka Naomi has a very high evaluation of Zheng Qinwen, "I am still very happy to play a match like this, I have learned a lot from Zheng Qinwen, let me know that in fact, the gap between us is not that big." It's more about the key points, so I should be mentally resilient."
Zhang Zhizhen advanced to the top 8 2-0 with a prize of 1.28 million
China's 28-year-old Zhang Zhizhen also continued to sing high, knocking out Monteiro 7-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight of the Rome Masters for the first time. Zhang Zhizhen's performance was very consistent, with only 22 unforced errors, and no chances were wasted, especially in the first set, he was very resilient and won the key points. In the second set, Zhang Zhizhen was very calm, firmly controlled the situation, won it very easily, and completed a 2-0 sweep, which was also a relatively big breakthrough for him.
After this match, Zhang Zhizhen's instant ranking reached 42nd, and in the next round against Tabilo, if he reaches the top 4, Zhang Zhizhen will create a new history of Chinese men's tennis. Zhang Zhizhen gained a lot from this match, as he and Zheng Qinwen reached the quarterfinals of Rome together, and it was also the first time that a Chinese player made history by reaching the quarterfinals of the same heavyweight tournament together with male and female players. Moreover, Zhang Zhizhen also received a prize of 160,000 euros, which is converted to 1.25 million yuan, which is too generous, and the prize money for one game is enough to buy a house in some big cities.
It is worth mentioning that although Zhang Zhizhen has already become famous, his financial pressure is very high. According to media reports last year, Zhang Zhizhen still has to repay the mortgage, he bought a house in Shanghai, and he has to repay 30,000 yuan a month, and the housing price in Shanghai is very high, Zhang Zhizhen's house is at least several million. After receiving a prize of 1.25 million, plus the income from participating in various events last year, he basically doesn't have to worry about his mortgage. Zhang Zhizhen's father Zhang Weihua once revealed in an interview that in order to cultivate Zhang Zhizhen, the family and the national team spent a total of 20 million, and now, all the efforts have paid off, and Zhang Zhizhen has become a top tennis player in China.