Getting ready to defeat, Zheng Qinwen doesn’t quit.
The Olympic champion has had a torrid time with damage since she clinched a well-known gold medal at Paris 2024. The Chinese language tennis famous person missed massive chunks of the 2025 season with an elbow damage and dropped out of the world’s high 100.
With no Grand Slam match win since final June and a low rating, Zheng needed to play within the US Open qualifiers for the primary time, solely the second time in her profession that she has needed to undergo qualifying at a serious (after the 2022 Australian Open).
Was it a blessing in disguise? Qualifying offers gamers an opportunity to construct rhythm over three matches earlier than the primary draw, and the 23-year-old is now on a six-match successful streak and again within the fourth spherical at Flushing Meadows for the primary time in two years.
“Once I determined to not play Cincinnati and make a block of coaching with my staff, I accepted that I truly must play US Open [qualifiers],” Zheng mentioned in her post-match press convention on Saturday (5 September), having simply upset twenty second seed Madison Keys in spherical three.
She added, “We have been working actually exhausting earlier than the US Open to attempt to [get] end result right here. However I truly by no means take into consideration the end result as a result of I simply need to combat each single match and put the power in every match… after this block of coaching, I felt I actually got here again stronger, bodily and in addition mentally.”
Zheng is just not one to throw within the towel, even when she was 5-0 down within the third set and needed to salvage a match level at 5-1. She went on to win seven straight video games in opposition to Keys for an almighty 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 comeback victory in New York Metropolis.
