NEW YORK — Olympic champion and former world number four, Qinwen Zheng had no choice but to enter qualifying if she wanted to play the US Open.
“Psychologically it was very difficult to accept,” the Chinese player admitted in New York.
“I used to be top 10, Olympic champion, playing in the big stadiums. My ranking dropped so much after the injury, I couldn’t perform well the last three, four months. I know people had a lot of doubt about me, and it’s just really hard,” Zheng said on Tuesday, hours after reaching the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.
Her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Polish Iga Swiatek was immensely significant: “I suffered a lot, and I have been through a lot of pain with every single loss. But in sport you just need to stay humble and keep fighting, because once you lose that, the result shows everything. I’m just really happy to be back.”
Late last year, Zheng had to undergo surgery on her right elbow, keeping her out of competition for four months.
Her absence was not long enough to qualify for the tour’s ranking protection system, and results on her return were not kind: first-round defeats at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and no standout performances at WTA 1000 events. Far from what the 2024 Australian Open finalist is accustomed to. She dropped outside the top 120 in the rankings.
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Part of her psychological work involved accepting her reality. The Olympic gold in Paris, the Melbourne final and being the fourth-best player in the world were just memories.
“I came from the qualifying, so I say to myself: the reality is you are just 125. You are not the top 10 you were before. Don’t treat yourself so high. You are here as everyone else. You start from the ground, so stay there and keep fighting.”
Another key to her strong campaign in Flushing Meadows was her willingness to commit to a gruelling training block ahead of the last Grand Slam of the year.
“After I lost badly in Toronto qualifying — I played really disaster there in the first round — my coach sat down with me and we had a long talk. He told me: you can’t continue playing like this, you need to have a training block and find your tennis again. It took me five seconds to reply: okay, let’s do that.”
Instead of playing in Cincinnati, the destination was Bradenton, Florida. The IMG Academy.
“It was nothing around, just tennis, gym, and a resting place. Really dedicated all the time to tennis, tennis, tennis, and training,” she said.
“I remember one day we even finished training at 8:30 in the evening when I started at 8:00 in the morning. It was really tough, but this is how sport works. If you don’t work hard, you don’t have it. The effort pays off.”
Zheng will face world number two Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan for a place in the US Open semifinals.
