Girls’s tennis was the supply of an unlikely gold medal that finally proved essential for China to remain degree with america on the prime of the medal desk on the not too long ago concluded Paris Olympics.
Zheng Qinwen, the rising 21-year-old World No. 7, had been steadily bettering on the tour, and reached her first Main last at Australian Open earlier this yr. However few would have predicted her to win her nation’s first-ever singles Olympic gold this summer time. And by doing so, she has turn out to be one thing of an in a single day sensation again house.
In what looks like an more and more open girls’s draw on the US Open, beginning Monday, the Olympic champion leads a small, but in-form, group of unlikely probables hoping to mount a title problem at Flushing Meadows this month within the absence of clear favourites.
Zheng Qinwen addresses her Chinese language followers in Queens! 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/PfJofvBm18
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 23, 2024
The Olympics tackle a higher significance to Chinese language gamers versus these coming from Western Europe or America; athletes that develop up in nationwide sports activities programmes dream of successful medals for his or her nation.
Rising up in native Shiyan, as a younger lady, Zheng had seen her hero, Li Na, come agonisingly near successful a medal at house, ending fourth at Beijing 2008. Just a few years later, she would relocate to Wuhan to coach, and even work below her coach, Carlos Rodrigues. That she would someday go the place her function mannequin had not gone was not a dream she thought was ever in attain.
The Paris triumph was important — she even defeated World No. 1 and queen of clay Iga Swiatek en path to the title — and has been on globetrotting path since. She got here to the US for the tuneup in Cincinnati, the place a second spherical loss was adopted by a tour to Beijing, the place she met her household and the Chinese language president, Xi Jinping.
Zheng will hope to construct on the title with a cost in New York. “After I received Olympic gold medal, the very first thing I instructed myself is: I need to hold the motivation on. I don’t need to let myself slip once more. I actually need to enhance in my psychological facet, [and figure out] the way to preserve the extent once you turn out to be a champion to maintain successful, successful, successful, as a substitute of getting relaxed and let your self lose straightforward match,” she was quoted as saying by the US Open web site.
However the problem begins proper on the outset. The 21-year-old will open event play within the first match at Louis Armstrong Stadium early on Monday within the first-rounder to observe towards American Amanda Anisimova.
Anisimova has turn out to be one thing of a journeywoman after her begin as a promising teenager halted, however after charting an unlikely path to the ultimate in Toronto this month, she’s one of many hardest unseeded floaters within the draw, a brutal project for Zheng who should reset from taking part in on the gradual clay in Paris to the quick exhausting courts in New York.
Sabalenka the favorite
The primary match is the primary of many hurdles, Zheng is in the identical quarter of the draw as the one prime participant that may be thought of an out-and-out favorite: second seed Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka kicked the yr off with a title defence on the Australian Open — beating Zheng within the last — however harm hassle and private strife halted any important progress. However on the busy tennis tour, one week makes a world of distinction. The Belarusian received the WTA 1000 occasion in Cincinnati final week for a primary title since January.
Sabalenka beat prime seed Swiatek in Ohio final week. Swiatek stays World No. 1 and the headline act of the ladies’s draw however her kind away from her clay area has been nothing particular within the build-up to the year-ending Slam, even when she has an honest draw.
Third seed Coco Gauff just isn’t effectively positioned for her upcoming title defence both. After her breakthrough Main win at Flushing Meadows final yr, she has slumped, posting simply two tour-level wins since crashing out of the second spherical at Wimbledon.
Within the absence of clear favourites on the prime, it’s a collection of bettering contenders that can look to take benefit. Fifth seed Jasmine Paolini will look to comply with up her back-to-back finals on the French Open and Wimbledon, as will champion on the latter, eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova. In-form sixth seed Jessica Pegula has, but once more, loved an amazing buildup to a Main after successful in Toronto and reaching the Cincinnati last. Breaking her duck and going deep right into a Main can be a very long time coming.
Zheng, although, is the chief amongst this group. A maiden Main last, consistency on the tour, and a breakthrough victory to win Olympic gold have meant she just isn’t precisely a fluke at this degree. But when she is really the true deal, she should seize the momentum behind her to take the following step in her profession now.