Women’s tennis was the source of an unlikely gold medal that eventually proved crucial for China to stay level with the United States at the top of the medal table at the recently concluded Paris Olympics.
Zheng Qinwen, the rising 21-year-old World No. 7, had been steadily improving on the tour, and reached her first Major final at Australian Open earlier this year. But few would have predicted her to win her country’s first-ever singles Olympic gold this summer. And by doing so, she has become something of an overnight sensation back home.
In what feels like an increasingly open women’s draw at the US Open, starting Monday, the Olympic champion leads a small, yet in-form, group of unlikely probables hoping to mount a title challenge at Flushing Meadows this month in the absence of clear favourites.
Zheng Qinwen addresses her Chinese fans in Queens! 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/PfJofvBm18
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 23, 2024
The Olympics take on a greater significance to Chinese players as opposed to those coming from Western Europe or America; athletes that grow up in national sports programmes dream of winning medals for their country.
Growing up in native Shiyan, as a young girl, Zheng had seen her hero, Li Na, come agonisingly close to winning a medal at home, finishing fourth at Beijing 2008. A few years later, she would relocate to Wuhan to train, and even work under her coach, Carlos Rodrigues. That she would one day go where her role model had not gone was not a dream she thought was ever in reach.
The Paris triumph was significant — she even defeated World No. 1 and queen of clay Iga Swiatek en route to the title — and has been on globetrotting path since. She came to the US for the tuneup in Cincinnati, where a second round loss was followed by a tour to Beijing, where she met her family and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Zheng will hope to build on the title with a charge in New York. “After I won Olympic gold medal, the first thing I told myself is: I want to keep the motivation on. I don’t want to let myself slip again. I really want to improve in my mental side, [and figure out] how to maintain the level when you become a champion to keep winning, winning, winning, instead of getting relaxed and let yourself lose easy match,” she was quoted as saying by the US Open website.
But the challenge begins right at the outset. The 21-year-old will open tournament play in the first match at Louis Armstrong Stadium early on Monday in the first-rounder to watch against American Amanda Anisimova.
Anisimova has become something of a journeywoman after her start as a promising teenager halted, but after charting an unlikely path to the final in Toronto this month, she’s one of the toughest unseeded floaters in the draw, a brutal assignment for Zheng who must reset from playing on the slow clay in Paris to the fast hard courts in New York.
Sabalenka the favourite
The first match is the first of many hurdles, Zheng is in the same quarter of the draw as the only top player that can be considered an out-and-out favourite: second seed Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka kicked the year off with a title defence at the Australian Open — beating Zheng in the final — but injury trouble and personal strife halted any significant progress. But on the busy tennis tour, one week makes a world of difference. The Belarusian won the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati last week for a first title since January.
Sabalenka beat top seed Swiatek in Ohio last week. Swiatek remains World No. 1 and the headline act of the women’s draw but her form away from her clay domain has been nothing special in the build-up to the year-ending Slam, even if she has a decent draw.
Third seed Coco Gauff is not well positioned for her upcoming title defence either. After her breakthrough Major win at Flushing Meadows last year, she has slumped, posting just two tour-level wins since crashing out of the second round at Wimbledon.
In the absence of clear favourites at the top, it is a series of improving contenders that will look to take advantage. Fifth seed Jasmine Paolini will look to follow up her back-to-back finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, as will champion at the latter, eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova. In-form sixth seed Jessica Pegula has, yet again, enjoyed a great buildup to a Major after winning in Toronto and reaching the Cincinnati final. Breaking her duck and going deep into a Major would be a long time coming.
Zheng, though, is the leader among this group. A maiden Major final, consistency on the tour, and a breakthrough victory to win Olympic gold have meant she is not exactly a fluke at this level. But if she is truly the real deal, she must seize the momentum behind her to take the next step in her career now.
