Zheng’s golden summer in Paris fades as focus shifts to Beijing

Zheng Qinwen’s crowning glory, her long-awaited coronation, came this summer in Paris. She defeated Donna Vekic in the Olympic final to become the first Chinese tennis player to win a gold medal in singles.

And now, only eight weeks later, Zheng is trying to pretend it never happened.

Beijing: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

While a number of Olympians are still making appearances with their medals wrapped around their necks, Zheng is not one of them.

“It’s been a while,” Zheng said Tuesday in advance of the China Open in Beijing. “I’m not going to take my gold medal everywhere I go. I want to focus on the China Open, the tournament.

“I will forget what I have achieved in the Olympics because I have to be grounded in each match.”

Zheng is still only 21 — she turns 22 in a few weeks — the age of a typical college student. But this coming-out season has taught her some hard lessons about attitude and perspective. After reaching the final at the Australian Open, “after that, I wasn’t very steady.”

She struggled with expectations, both internal and external. This time, there will be no wallowing in the afterglow of a breakthrough performance. For there is another challenge at hand. Zheng enters the week at No.9 in the Race to the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Zheng trails Danielle Collins — who isn’t playing this week — in the No. 8 spot by 108 points. Zheng is 498 points behind Emma Navarro for the pivotal No.7 spot, which would guarantee qualification.

The No.5 seed in Beijing, Zheng has a bye and will play the winner of the match between qualifier Kimberly Birrell and lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova the second round.

“Now I find it a little bit challenging going into the Finals,” Zheng told reporters. “Indeed, I need good points from these two tournaments.

“I was asking my team, `Why do you make me so anxious right now?’ I know I’m feeling the pressure going into the Finals. I have to make sure that I play well here.”

The good news? This China portion of the Hologic WTA Tour is essentially a home game for Zheng. Her parents are making the journey from their home in Wuhan — site of the season’s final 1000 tournament. Her father is from another city of Hubei province, while her mother is from Sichuan province. They worried, of course, that Zheng would lose her gold medal in a foreign country, but it is safe and sound.

So, it seems, is her mindset.

“I can just tell you like this: After US Open, first thing come in my mind is the China tour, China Open, Wuhan Open,” Zheng said. “People start to get tired at the end of the season. For me it’s different. I’m really motivated to come play in China, in front of my people. I know they’re going to support me.”

Historically, Zheng plays well in China. A year ago, she won eight of 10 matches, taking three of four in the WTA Elite Trophy event in Zhuhai and winning the WTA 500 in Zhengzhou, defeating Barbora Krejcikova in a three-set final.

The exception was Beijing, where following a gold-medal run in the Asian Games, which were hosted in Hangzhou, she lost her first match to Elena Rybakina 6-1, 6-2.

“I’m quite fresh for all those tournaments because I have big expectations because last year for the Asian Games, I was not able to prepare well in the China Open. But this year I had a good preparation.”

Take a few steps back and consider how quickly this has all happened for Zheng. In 2022, she was the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year. In 2023, she was Most Improved Player. Now she’s a Grand Slam finalist, an Olympic gold medalist, and a Top 10 player in a good position to qualify for the year-end finals.

She’s the same person she always was but understands that in the eyes of the world she’s crossed over into elite athletic status.

“Coming back to China I see more people recognizing me,” Zheng said. “When I was at the airport, people wouldn’t recognize me if they’re not interested in tennis. My fame was only within the tennis circle.

“But now when I go to a restaurant, people ask me for autographs. I feel the impact. I feel a sense of responsibility now here in China.”

Zheng is in the draw’s top half, which means she’d face No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals. It was Sabalenka who defeated Zheng in the Melbourne final and again in the US Open quarterfinals.

“This is too early to think about it,” Zheng said. “Before the semifinals, there’s so many matches. As a top player, as a good player, I want to focus on my next match instead of focusing on the quarterfinals and semifinals. I just want to focus on my training, my next round.

“If I’m in the quarterfinals and semifinals, ask me this question again.”