Qinwen Zheng returns to the main stage: “I have all the pieces, I just needed to put them together”

Surely the name of Qinwen Zheng was not the one that most of the audience expected to see in the quarterfinals of the US Open. Although, to be fair, if it hadn’t been for the injuries, the Chinese player would never have dropped out of the top 10 in recent times. Time itself is what places everyone in their rightful spot.

And this week, she has placed the #125 in the world ranking among the top eight of the fourth Grand Slam of the season. Her victory this Monday against Iga Swiatek came with an epic comeback, a boost of confidence that will help the Chinese player forget the pressure and face the upcoming challenges with the utmost courage. Now it’s time to listen to her latest press conference to understand a bit more about everything she has endured this past year.

Qinwen Zheng explains her epic comeback against Swiatek

“I started the match very slowly. That’s why she was able to lead 5-0. Then I began to play with more freedom because I needed to find my rhythm at least for the second set. Somehow, I felt very comfortable on the court, and at one point, I lost track of the score because I was so focused on playing each point. I think that was the key to my comeback. I didn’t expect it today, but somehow it happened again. At 4-5, I went to grab my towel because I thought we were at 3-5 and that I had to play one more game. When I saw the score, I thought: ‘Oh, 4-5, I need to go sit down.’ I was so focused on each point that I couldn’t even remember the score. I just kept thinking: this ball here, that one there, next point, and kept repeating.”

Qinwen and Roland Garros, the place where she hit rock bottom

“That loss was one of the hardest for me to accept because I had many opportunities in that match. Even now, I can remember how I wasted those opportunities. But I believe those losses were necessary to understand that I need to stay humble. I need to keep working hard to get back to where I belong because I feel there are no gifts in sports. If you stop working hard, the results show everything. I needed to heal for quite a while, little by little, and find myself again. I just had to accept it, keep working hard, and wait for my moment to come. I always had confidence that I would be back there. It was just a matter of when.”

She always believed in her return to the top

“After losing that qualifying match in Toronto, my coach sat down with me, and we had a long conversation. He said: ‘You can’t keep playing like this. You need to do a training block and find your tennis again.’ I took five seconds to think about it and said: ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ We went to Bradenton, to IMG Academy, where there was nothing around: just tennis, gym, and a place to rest. We dedicated ourselves entirely to tennis and training. There was one day when we finished training at 8:30 PM after starting at eight in the morning. It was really tough, but that’s how sports work. If you don’t work hard, you don’t get anything. After that loss, I told my coach that I had all the pieces in my tennis; I just hadn’t managed to put them together. He told me: ‘We’re going to train very hard to help you put all the pieces together.’ And that’s what we did.”

Humility to face whatever comes next

“I learned a lot about myself, about tennis, about life, about everything. For me, losing a match is not just about tennis. It’s about something within yourself. Right now, the most important challenge for me is to maintain this humility and be there, fighting as if I have nothing. This time I come from qualifying, so I tell myself: ‘The reality is you are 125. You are no longer the top 10 you were before. Don’t treat yourself as if you’re so high up. You’re here like everyone else. You start from the bottom, so stay there and keep fighting.’”

The virtue that has brought Qinwen Zheng back to shine

“My confidence is always there. Even during these three or four months when I lost, my confidence was always within me because I always know what I’m capable of. I just need to prove it. Sometimes it’s hard to show you have confidence when you lose matches, and people don’t like that. But I always tell myself: ‘Stay calm.’ Without confidence, you can’t win a match. I’ve had many tough matches in qualifying and here, and I believe that confidence has helped me win those matches. In the future, no matter what round I’m in, confidence will always be with me because I feel it is the foundation of any athlete who wants to win.”

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Qinwen Zheng vuelve al escenario principal: “Tengo todas las piezas, solo necesitaba juntarlas”