Zheng’s Miami mindset: Play, learn and keep moving forward

MIAMI -- Laughing and smiling, Zheng Qinwen cavorts in something like one of those ball pits for kids at the local hamburger establishment.

She’s laying in an inflatable swimming pool bursting with yellow tennis balls. As Zheng submerges, three photographers click away in the cavernous concourse at Hard Rock Stadium -- and there’s no sign of Miami Dolphins fans anywhere.

These are the fresh, fun images that come with being a Top 10 player and Zheng, still only 22, already understands this. Photoshoots like this one have helped her gain a huge following in China.

Of course, it starts with tennis. Taken as a whole, her 2024 season was spectacular. Zheng, No. 9 in the world heading into Miami, reached the final at the Australian Open, won the singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics and finished with a flurry, reaching the championship match at the WTA Finals Riyadh and soaring to No. 5 in the PIF WTA Rankings.

Later, ahead of Thursday’s second-round match with Lauren Davis at the Miami Open presented by Itaú, she shared her thoughts with a bracing candor.

“I would just say my 2024 had lots of ups and downs, good moments, bad moments,” Zheng told wtatennis.com. “A lot of things to learn from there.

“Obviously, the Riyadh final was also good for me, but I could do better in the final. There were a lot of important points I did not catch -- but that’s tennis. Generally, I would say quite good my 2024.”

Still, it’s what she learned from those teachable moments that should sustain her in 2025. For in the continuing studies that constitute elite tennis, Zheng absorbed a series of lessons in what it means to be a professional.

Reaching that final in Melbourne, she explained, was both exhilarating and slightly perilous -- kind of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment.

“I had a struggle for a couple of months because there is a moment I lose a bit my motivation and I didn’t take some tournaments serious,” Zheng said. “And also at the practices, I was like pretty relaxed. 

“We went to the [Australian] final, and I felt like, `Ah, ----, I should have done better in that moment.’ When I look back, it’s like `Come on, you’ve got to be focused all the time.’ ”

It all came together in Paris, where she beat (in order) three-time major champion Angelique Kerber, then-World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Donna Vekic in the gold medal match.

“The Olympic games was quite impressive for me,” she said, “such a great experience.”

It’s that ecstatic feeling that she’s trying to recapture here in Miami. So far, it’s been another unsettled sequence; she started the year 1-3, but put together three wins at Indian Wells, notably beating Victoria Azarenka and Marta Kostyuk.

It began, she said, with that extended season in Riyadh. Then, after only two “pure” days off, she embarked on a busy media and marketing campaign. When a strained right elbow limited her preseason training block, some members of her team urged her to skip the Australian Open. Zheng, after her success the previous year, naturally wanted to give it a go. 

She fell in the second round to Laura Siegemund and lost her opening matches in Doha and Dubai, respectively, to Ons Jabeur and Peyton Stearns. By the time she arrived at Indian Wells, after some new exercises to strengthen the elbow, Zheng rallied. And now she’s poised to move forward.

At the end of last year, she was so thrilled with her performances, she said she didn’t want to stop.

“But, you know, tennis doesn’t work like this,” Zheng said. “If you don’t have a 100-percent body, it is sometimes difficult. When you cannot dedicate time on court, there is always somebody that will practice more than you, somebody who wants it more than you.”

Her goal this year is to stay humble and simply be a professional, from week to week, match to match.

“It’s just trying to be dedicated,” Zheng said. “Focus on your practice all the time, doesn’t matter which result you have. Doesn’t matter if you win a big event or lose a first-round match -- just keep going on and on.

“And at the end, you will find a consistent performance.”