The role-model impact in sport is a double-edged sword. In one of the best of occasions, it helps a sporting tradition thrive the place each era finds inspiration from the earlier and the champions’ ecosystem is consistently replenished. However it could possibly even have hostile penalties, burdening the athletes of successive generations with an ordinary that’s unattainable to stay as much as.
Qinwen Zheng has flourished within the former setting. The 22-year-old from China has appeared as much as compatriot Li Na — 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open champion, the primary Asian to win a Grand Slam singles title and be ranked as excessive as No. 2 on the earth — and zoomed up the tennis charts, reaching a career-best WTA rating of No. 5 on Monday.
Epochal triumph
Zheng began the yr by reaching the Australian Open closing and ended it with a extremely creditable runner-up end on the WTA Finals final week. Sandwiched in between was the epochal triumph on the 2024 Paris Olympics, the place she grew to become the primary Asian tennis participant, male or feminine, to win a singles gold medal.
“Li Na gained her first Grand Slam, and I then began considering that, ‘Oh, the Asian participant can even do one thing good in tennis. That is such a global sport,’” Zheng stated, describing the affect of her position mannequin. “I feel that she put somewhat seed in my coronary heart that I additionally wish to do it. I wish to attempt to be like her, you understand, and even higher.”
Though there’s nonetheless quite a lot of floor for Zheng to cowl earlier than she will be able to consider emulating, and finally surpassing, her idol Li Na, her ascent during the last three seasons has been nothing in need of staggering.
She began 2022 outdoors the top-100, and by the tip of it, was ranked within the top-30 and was named the WTA Newcomer of the 12 months. On the Pan Pacific Open (WTA 500) in Tokyo in September 2022, she even grew to become the primary Chinese language teenager to achieve a WTA Tour closing.
That yr, she gained her debut matches in any respect 4 Slams, beat 2018 French Open champion Simona Halep on the Roland-Garros clay and picked a set off eventual winner Iga Swiatek. By the tip of 2023, she was top-20, had gained her first two Tour titles and earned the WTA’s Most Improved Participant of the 12 months award.
Teenaged success could be a nice phantasm. However Zheng, who began tennis on the age of seven close to Wuhan, China, and has been coaching in Barcelona since 2019, has honed and bettered her craft like how novelists do their prose between the primary and final drafts.
Zheng has at all times had a strong serve, delivered from the highest of a five-foot, ten-inch body, and a free-swinging, top-spin-heavy forehand. Her ace depend has at all times been excessive — which, in girls’s tennis, could be a game-changer — and within the occasion the serve was returned, her forehand would take centre-stage.
Deadly weapon: Zheng has a strong serve, delivered from the highest of a 5’10“ body. | Picture credit score: Getty Photographs
However the lack of consistency in touchdown her opening salvos was usually her bane. In 2024, nonetheless, particularly the second half, she has meticulously labored on bettering this facet, focusing extra on repeatability and accuracy.
Tour-leading server
The impact is that she has hit a tour-leading 445 aces from 68 matches this season, and gained 75.7% of her first-serve factors, which is healthier than any lady who has performed greater than a match. Her corresponding numbers for 2023 have been 363 aces from 54 matches (fourth greatest) and 73.7% of first-serve factors gained (joint-top). Total, her service-points-won metric has grown from 60.1% in 2023 to 62% in 2024.
Analyst Jeff Sackmann identified on his weblog Tennis Summary that Zheng’s backhand had additionally stored tempo, postulating that it was “5 occasions more practical [in 2024] than it was earlier than”. Because of this, Zheng now places extra returns in play and they’re removed from weak, which could have been the case earlier, incentivising opponents to focus on that wing.
The on-court outcomes have mirrored this. Since dropping within the first spherical at Wimbledon in early July, she has gained essentially the most matches on the WTA Tour — 31. In addition to the gold medal in Paris, she defended her WTA 250 Palermo title, reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, the semifinals in Beijing (WTA 1000), the ultimate in Wuhan (WTA 1000) and lifted the trophy in Tokyo (WTA 500).
In her maiden look on the WTA Finals in Riyadh, she beat two Wimbledon champions in Elena Rybakina and Barbora Krejcikova, and a two-time Slam finalist in Jasmine Paolini to make the ultimate. Within the summit conflict in opposition to American Coco Gauff, she led 6-3, 3-1, and served for the championship at 5-4 within the deciding set solely to show a mildly impatient streak and find yourself dropping the tie in a tie-break.
“Whenever you lose a match, there are classes to study,” Zheng stated, after the ultimate. “So I might say there are quite a lot of optimistic issues right here, as a result of it was my first WTA Finals and I’m right here [in the final]. However on the similar time, I really feel harm to lose. However we are going to see. Perhaps subsequent time I can be higher.”
Zheng’s exploits come at an fascinating time for ladies’s tennis. There may be nonetheless, admittedly, a major quantity of churn within the higher echelons, just like the record of Wimbledon winners of the previous few years will present, however there’s additionally clear-cut proof of a Tour-leading pack comprising Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek and Gauff, and a mid-card that has the likes of Paolini, Rybakina and Jessica Pegula.
Closing the hole
Zheng is the newest entrant into the latter group that’s anticipated to snap on the heels of the highest trio in 2025. Although she has simply gained one of many 14 mixed outings in opposition to Sabalenka, Swiatek and Gauff, there’s nothing to counsel that Zheng can’t begin closing the hole.
Extra to return: The 22-year-old Zheng, her coach Pere Riba believes, is at simply ‘60% of what she might be’. | Picture credit score: Getty Photographs
She beat four-time French Open champion Swiatek on the Polish star’s greatest floor — the Parisian clay — en route the Olympic gold, stretched Sabalenka to a few units within the Wuhan closing final month and nearly felled Gauff in Riyadh.
“If she continues bettering, and given the best way she is doing issues, I’m optimistic,” Zheng’s Spanish coach Pere Riba informed The Nationwide about her prospects of successful a Main. “It will possibly occur or not occur, as a result of many gamers are combating for a similar factor. However she has the tennis and the health.”
And to be one of the best on the earth and be on the pinnacle of the WTA rankings, Zheng must proceed to evolve, alter and embellish, for the challenges from her friends can be akin to coping with shifting targets.
“I’ve quite a lot of confidence in Qinwen, as a result of she has the instruments, the weapons, and each month is healthier,” insisted Riba. “However for those who analyse, we are able to see that Aryna and Iga are combating somewhat bit extra up from the opposite ones.”
“I don’t see that she’s on the prime of her potential,” added Riba, who additionally coached Gauff to the US Open title in 2023. “She is at 60% of what she might be. And this provides me quite a lot of confidence that she’s going to be there sooner or later. I actually consider that.”
Revealed – November 16, 2024 12:01 am IST
