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PARYŻ — To była tylko kwestia czasu dla chińskiego tenisa, prawda?
W sobotnie popołudnie Zheng Qinwen wywalczyła dla Chin złoty medal na korcie Rolanda Garrosa , odnosząc największe zwycięstwo na korcie tenisowym dla najludniejszego kraju świata od czasów świetności Li Na .
Zheng, 21-letnia wschodząca gwiazda, wykorzystała nierówną grę Chorwatki Donny Vekic, aby zapewnić Chinkom pierwszy medal olimpijski w grze pojedynczej, na tym samym korcie, na którym Li odniosła przełomowe zwycięstwo podczas French Open 13 lat temu.
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„Zawsze chciałam być jedną z zawodniczek, które mogą inspirować młode dzieciaki” – powiedziała Zheng ze złotym medalem zawieszonym na szyi. Powiedziała, że igrzyska olimpijskie są najważniejszym turniejem w jej kraju, nawet ważniejszym niż Wielki Szlem. Zwłaszcza dla jej ojca, który popchnął ją do tego sportu, gdy była małą dziewczynką dorastającą w Shiyan, mieście w północnych Chinach. W wieku siedmiu lat Zheng pojechała do Wuhan z ojcem, aby grać przed trenerem. Zrobiła na niej tak duże wrażenie, że została tam, aby trenować — sama.
„Teraz mogę mu powiedzieć, że przeszłam do historii” – powiedziała, promieniejąc najszczerszym uśmiechem.
Było to zwycięstwo, na które czekali Chińczycy, którzy przyjechali na igrzyska do Paryża, a także ci, którzy żyją tutaj jako część rozrastającej się diaspory.
Flagi były wszędzie wśród tłumu na korcie Philippe-Chatrier, trzymane wysoko przez fanów, którzy skandowali imię Zheng przez cały mecz, jakby to ona dorastała kilka krajów dalej. Na stadionie znanym z hałaśliwych tłumów podczas French Open chińscy wierni zrobili wszystko, co mogli, aby Zheng czuła się, jakby grała w domu.
Philippe-Chatrier was packed with fans on Zheng’s side (RvS.Media/Robert Hradil/Getty Images)
Mission accomplished. Vekic produced just 10 winners compared with 30 unforced errors, a subjective and imperfect statistic, but regardless, that ratio will rarely lead to victory. Zheng wasn’t too much cleaner, with 13 winners and 20 unforced errors, but against Vekic on Saturday, it was good enough.
It is hard to overstate the impact for tennis, or really for any sport, of having a major star in a country of roughly 1.4 billion people and the world’s second largest economy. Yao Ming singlehandedly altered the finances of the NBA 20 years ago.
Judging from the crowd, Zheng has inspired far more people than just children and her father. When she is at her best, she flies across the court and swings the loosest of arms, ripping balls into the far corners of the court, her eyes wide, and beaming with energy.
Ever the ham, she’s also not afraid to indulge in some karaoke after a win on the tour, showing off an infectious personality.
“One of the brightest stars in the sport,” Novak Djokovic said of her ahead of the final.
Zheng took control of proceedings from the start of the final (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
For tennis, especially women’s tennis, Zheng’s star couldn’t rise at a better time. Li’s two Grand Slam titles, in 2011 and 2014, the latter at the Australian Open, blew China open for the sport. In 2019 the women’s tour, the WTA, began a 10-year deal to hold its season-ending championship in Shenzhen, with promised prize money of $14 million annually.
Then Peng Shuai happened.
In November of 2021, Peng, a star in doubles, accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her in social media posts that were quickly deleted.
The Chinese government removed all mentions of Peng’s accusation, and coverage of Peng from news media outside China was censored. She largely disappeared from public life. Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA went public with his frustration, demanding that he and the WTA be able to speak with Peng independently and that Chinese officials conduct a transparent investigation into her allegations.
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WTA suspends tournaments in China after ‘censorship’ of Peng Shuai’s sexual assault allegation
If they did not comply, Simon said, the WTA would consider removing its nine tournaments from China, including the Tour Finals, moves that could cost women’s tennis tens and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars over the next decade. Simon then followed through on that threat, announcing that after weeks of failed attempts to communicate with Peng, and no sign of an investigation or evidence that Peng could speak freely, the WTA was immediately suspending all of its tournaments in China.
Peng Shuai’s sudden exit from public life fractured the relationship between tennis and China ((Xinhua/Bai Xue via Getty Images)
Peng largely dropped out of sight, appearing briefly during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, but has remained largely silent ever since. The Chinese government refused to budge, and a year and a half later, when Simon announced that the boycott had failed, Chinese officials essentially canceled the contract to host the finals, putting the tour in financial peril.
Though the regular tour stops in the country have resumed, the sport’s relationship with China is still recovering.
Zheng’s victory should do plenty to repair any lingering damage; it will also reopen discussions about Peng’s decision to retire, announced in a highly controlled interview with French newspaper L’Equipe in 2022. Zheng nearly had her moment at the Australian Open in January, when she took advantage of a side of the draw that was decimated by upsets and surged into the final. But she ran into the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and the Belarusian overwhelmed her.
Zheng dug herself out of holes in both her quarterfinal and her semifinal (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
Since then, Zheng has struggled to match her form of the Australian summer, though she got on a roll late last month and won a small tournament in Palermo, Italy on clay, which is her best surface.
She had a rough road in the Olympics, coming back from a set and a service break down in the third round and the quarterfinals against Emma Navarro and Angelique Kerber. In the semifinal, she managed a win widely considered impossible, beating Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 and a clay savant who had lost just once at Roland Garros since 2019. Swiatek had beaten Zheng six times, but Zheng set aside her fears and told herself that she would fight for three hours or more if that’s what it would take to beat Swiatek.
It took far less than that, as she won 6-2, 7-5, coming back from a 0-4 deficit in the second set, when Swiatek looked like she was turning the match around.
Heading into the final, Zheng said she had none of the nerves that made her legs heavy before she faced Sabalenka in Australia. Her mind was clear and confident. She believed she had more shots than Vekic, and more importantly, a “mental strength” she did not have six months ago.
An hour-and-a-half later, she climbed to the top step of the podium. With Vekic standing below her to her right and Swiatek, the bronze medal winner, below her on her left, Zheng gazed up at her rising flag as the anthem played.
When it was over, she put her gold medal in her mouth and took a bite.
(Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
(Top photo: RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images)
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Matthew Futterman jest nagradzanym weteranem dziennikarstwa sportowego i autorem dwóch książek: „Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” i „Players: How Sports Became a Business”. Zanim dołączył do The Athletic w 2023 r., pracował dla The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey i The Philadelphia Inquirer. Obecnie pisze książkę o tenisie „The Cruelest Game: Agony, Ecstasy and Near Death Experiences on the Pro Tennis Tour”, która ma zostać wydana przez Doubleday w 2026 r. Obserwuj Matthew na Twitterze @ mattfutterman
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