"This is amazing, it's just my first time at the WTA Finals"

Fernando Murciego | 8 Nov 2024 | 18.22

Qinwen Zheng's smile after advancing to the final of the WTA Finals 2024. Source: Getty

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The beginner's luck? Not exactly. Although many fans surely did not expect to see Qinwen Zheng making it this far in the 2024 WTA Finals, the truth is that if we look at her year and, especially her last months, few racquets arrived in Riyadh in better form than her. And she has proven it, first advancing through the group stage with a 2-1 record and asserting her favoritism on Friday against a Barbora Krejcikova who never managed to take the final step. Tomorrow, the Chinese will fight for the master title but, while her opponent for that final spot is decided, we hear her thoughts after one of the most notable victories of her career.

“This victory is very special to me, the whole tournament is very special. In the end, it's my first participation in a WTA Finals and I've been able to reach the last match and fight for the title,” said the 22-year-old player somewhat surprised. "Everything has been incredible, Barbora (Krejcikova) is an impressive rival, an incredibly good player, and she has shown it this week. I don't really know what happened to me at that moment with a 3-0 lead in the second set, I thought I had escaped definitively, but she fought hard to come back. I have to thank the crowd for all their support to stay in that moment and pull through,” she emotionally expressed about the audience in attendance.

It's impossible to reach the final round of a WTA Finals without first completing a scandalous season, which perfectly applies in the case of Zheng. We already knew about her talent, her potential, but until we saw her reach her first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open or her first WTA 1000 final in Wuhan, there were still many skeptics who didn't think they would see her climbing higher within the top 10. Well, right now the virtual rankings tell us that the player from Shiyan has mathematically secured finishing the season among the top five in the world, which marks another leap in her breakthrough. A title tomorrow, depending on her opponent, could even place her in the top 3.

A MENTAL TEST

We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out if Qinwen Zheng has that level of inspiration to crown herself the master in Riyadh, but what we can do now is give her a very high mark for her performance today against Krejcikova. With the match completely under control, at 6-3 and 3-0 in the second set, the Czech took advantage of a slight lapse from the Asian player to start gaining ground and disrupt the reports of those quicker journalists. She even forced her to serve to stay in the set, but that resurgence turned out to be a mere anecdote. Minutes later, on the WTA microphones, Pere Riba's protégé explained the formula she used to not lose her composure and immediately regain control of the match.

“A situation like that is always complicated, much more complicated than what the scoreboard or what outsiders may see. You start the second set, go up 3-0, the norm is to focus on your game and think that your opponent will gradually lower her guard, even that can give you the opportunity to play more freely. However, she kept fighting until she reached 3-3, which is highly commendable,” acknowledges the woman who has achieved 50 victories this season. “What did I do at that moment? First of all: not to panic. It was time to start over, regain focus, and imagine it was 0-0, as if nothing had happened. For me, it has been a test of how mentally strong I can be,” she concludes with a smile of someone who sees themselves capable of anything.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, “Esto es increíble, solo es mi primera vez en unas WTA Finals”