{"id":876710,"date":"2026-10-09T20:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T20:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876710\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T20:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T20:42:26","slug":"zheng-qinwens-maturing-perspective-on-success-fuels-energizing-beijing-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876710\/","title":{"rendered":"Zheng Qinwen’s maturing perspective on success fuels energizing Beijing run"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING — Zheng Qinwen<\/a> used to think winning was like “water.”<\/p>\n

Every single match, she had to win because earlier in her career, winning was viewed as essential and a necessity to sustain life on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. Winning was seen as the norm, and that made it difficult navigating low points at times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, particularly over the past few months, that viewpoint has changed. A day after she celebrated her 24th birthday, Zheng spoke on her maturing mindset as she enters her second career China Open semifinal following her win over Elina Svitolina in Friday’s quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

“I’m more grateful for every win because I understand how much effort I have made behind every win,” Zheng said. “I’ve learned to enjoy the wins and the effort on court.”<\/p>\n

Of course, winning is important for rankings, prize money and capturing titles, but Zheng isn’t riding or dying on it. Rather, she’s come to appreciate the work behind the scenes and that low points in her career are not a negative thing, a lesson that she learned over the past few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zheng upsets Svitolina to reach China Open semifinals<\/p>\n

“My biggest takeaway is that lows are not necessarily bad,” Zheng said. “Being positive every day is really difficult. When I am low, I have the energy to make a breakthrough. I saw the shortcomings in myself. I saw the weaknesses of my personality. The lows actually helped me improve.<\/p>\n

“When you are in the lows, you should face the challenge. That’s what helps you reflect and grow because you’ll always make it back from the lows.”<\/p>\n

The China Open is particularly personal to Zheng, not just because she’s performing in front of her home crowd, but rather it was the location of one of her lows last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Beijing in 2025, she retired from her third-round match with a right-elbow injury that had kept her out since Wimbledon because of the surgery. After that retirement, she didn’t play again until Doha in February.<\/p>\n

Eventually, because she wasn’t playing at her highest level and getting results, the former World No. 4’s ranking slipped to as low as No. 160 and she became reliant on wild cards for direct entry.<\/p>\n

Then came Toronto, where a qualifying loss sparked the turning point of her season arguably when Zheng was at her lowest. At the push of her team, Zheng underwent an intense training block in Florida to rediscover her game<\/a> and skipped Cincinnati. Since, she’s posted her two best results all season with quarterfinals at the US Open and is now into the final four in Beijing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simply, Zheng just needed to accept to herself that winning wasn’t essential at that point in her time, and it’s paid off. Zheng is 12-1 in main-draw matches since Toronto, including the three US Open qualifiers.<\/p>\n

“What I did in that training block is still unforgettable,” Zheng said. “I couldn’t play those tournaments. I [had] to accept [that] I needed this training block. I need to accept when the coach, they are hard to me on court.<\/p>\n

“I remember [my coach] Pere [Riba], he said to me: ‘Right now you are just 140 in the ranking. You used to be 65 before. You need to listen to me more on court because you are not the top 10 you [once were].’ I was really angry inside. But I have to calm down and say yes, that’s the reality. Seems like the effort [has paid off].”<\/p>\n

”
\n When you are in the lows, you should face the challenge. That’s what helps you reflect and grow because you’ll always make it back from the lows.
\n ”<\/p>\n

Zheng Qinwen during her post-quarterfinal press conference in Beijing<\/p>\n

At the time, Zheng didn’t expect that the results would come this quickly, admitting she was “too low” to look at the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experiencing low points is a part of every tennis player’s career, and Zheng is no different. However, with her recovery and journey back onto the WTA Tour taking longer than expected, it made her appreciate the larger picture.<\/p>\n

“Going through this journey, there have been many chapters. I could write many chapters,” Zheng said. “You see the lows in the recent period, but in my junior years, there were many highs and lows. It’s been like this all the way through.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t expect that the lows this time continued that long. That is why I treasure the opportunities now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING — Zheng Qinwen used to think winning was like “water.” Every single match, she had to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":["post-876710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}