“I was only at 20% or 30% of my level” – Zheng on her victory over Andreeva

When packing her bag, Zheng Qinwen should have put some large gloves in it. Or at least the right one, to face the icy handshake after her 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 victory in 2 hours and 32 minutes against Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals of the China Open in Beijing.

The Russian, for her part, might be well advised to equip herself with earplugs and a mask over her eyes so that she doesn’t hear or read anything about the Chinese No 1’s press conference.

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“I feel today I play so bad tennis,” Zheng said after the match, during which she had handed Andreeva her first 6-0 set loss on the main tour.

“I was at 20% or 30% of my level. If I could have played better, the match would have been over faster.

“I wonder why I played at this level. But the whole match, it was under my control. Whether I can win this match really depends on how I play it. I’m really happy that I could win this match with such low form.”

Trailing 4-0, the home crowd favourite, soon to be 22 years old, managed to win five games in a row. But her meagre first-serve percentage – 46% in the opening set – was damaging. Especially since she was put to the test after her second serves, behind which she won only 19% of the points in the first set – 4 out of 21.

“At the beginning of the match, I was trying to be calm, nicer to my opponent because she’s younger,” said the world No 7, alluding to the fact that Andreeva is still only a tender 17 years of age.

“But given my level today, I told myself that I wasn’t going to win with my tennis, but with my mentality. I felt more energy when I started shouting to encourage myself, instead of letting my emotion close inside.”

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If my first serve percentage had been higher, the score would have been different

Zheng Qinwen

In the next two sets, Zheng’s first serve continued to suffer, hovering at 56% and 45% respectively in the second and third sets.

“If my first serve percentage had been higher, the score would have been different,” the Olympic champion continued.

“But winning a match when you are not perfect is very important.”

Luckily for the Australian Open finalist, her opponent today did not do much better in this area, with 55% of first serves successful. But Zheng, who has a match-up with Karolína Muchová in the semi-finals, only “focuses on herself”, and when it comes to analyse matches she doesn’t do it with kid gloves.

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