Asian Games 2023: Zheng Qinwen wins women's tennis gold to secure Paris 2024 quota
The world No. 23 seizes an all-Chinese final vs Zhu Lin 6-2, 6-4 in Hangzhou for the second major international title of the 20-year-old's career.
Tennis
Zheng Qinwen beat Zhu Lin in straight sets in the women's tennis final at the Asian Games 2023 on Friday (29 September), securing a quota for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Zheng, ranked 23rd on the WTA Tour, grinded out a 6-2, 6-4 victory over her Chinese compatriot under the sizzling sun at HOC Tennis Centre in Hangzhou.
Paris would be the first Olympic Games for the 20-year-old Zheng, who is the highest-ranked player from her country as things stand.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
"The feeling was incredible,” said Zheng, who won her first tour title in July in Palermo, Italy.
“I’m really happy about that. That was not an easy match, today and also yesterday. All of them are good fighters. As you can see, there's a lot of emotion on the court for both of us."
"I think Paris 2024 will be totally different, because we will be facing opponents from Europe and the US, and so it will be a bigger challenge for us. We need to prepare ourselves better for that."
Zheng Qinwen: Games "will set the path for me"
The first set was rather smooth sailing for Zheng, who raced out to a 4-0 lead en route to winning it in 43 minutes.
But Zheng had to dig deep in the second set against Zhu, who had won their lone career tour meeting in Jinan five years ago.
Back then Zhu swept to a 6-0, 6-1 win facing a 15-year-old Zheng but now, her opponent has become a completely different proposition.
Zheng went up 3-1 but Zhu clawed her way back, taking the next three games to move out in front.
Zheng was down 40 love in the eighth game, in danger of going down 5-3. But she managed to win the next five points, restoring parity at four games apiece.
In the final game, Zheng capitalised on her third match point as she jumped for joy.
"This year has been a bumpy road for me, especially the beginning of the season,” she said. “I’m not sure if I'm making progress, but I think I'm more mature and I don't care too much about the results.
"At the beginning of the year, I focused too much on results, but now I only focus on each match, and each day. Winning gold today will set the path for me to do better tomorrow and has boosted my confidence as well.
"In Palermo that was my personal achievement. That title, because I did poorly in the previous two Grand Slams, I needed to play some low level tournaments to earn more points.
“But this time for the Asian Games we worked hard and did a lot of preparation because we regard this competition as very important."