“Qinwen is on fire,” – just a few days ago, we saw the American legend, Andy Roddick, heaping praise on the Chinese superstar. Truly, Qinwen Zheng has been one of the most impressive players on the women’s Tour in 2024. She reached the finals at the 2024 AO, and then won two titles this season. However, her biggest victory of this season came at the Paris Olympics. In Paris, everyone thought the ‘Queen of Clay’, Iga Swiatek would clinch the gold medal, but Zheng had turned the table and returned home with gold. Thanks to her incredible run this season, Roddick can’t help singing praise for Zheng, but this time he also came up with a stark reality check by drawing a comparison with Aryna Sabalenka.

If Qinwen Zheng has been one of the most impressive players on the Tour, then Aryna Sabalenka has been one of the most consistent players on the Tour. Sabalenka has won four titles this season and two out of those four are Grand Slam triumphs! With the help of this incredible performance in the 2024 season, the Belarusian has now secured the top spot in the women’s singles ranking. On the other hand, Qinwen Zheng’s impressive records in 2024 earned her a place inside the Top 8.

Despite playing an impressive brand of tennis, Zheng has failed to win a match against Sabalenka in her career so far. Currently, Aryna Sabalenka leads the H2H 5-0. Talking about Qinwen Zheng and her performance against the current world number one during the recent episode of the ‘Served with Andy Roddick’, Roddick said, “Qinwen is still playing well, still has a problem, a matchup problem with Sabalenka. Losing her first match there to her and the wing is a little big on the forehand. Sabalenka just peppered it and goes through it. Zheng is better than everyone on earth maybe at this moment except for Sabalenka over the last six weeks it’s a bit of a matchup problem.”

Just a few days ago, during a conversation, Andy Roddick claimed that he doesn’t expect Qinwen Zheng to drop out of the Top 8. Instead, he stated that he only sees her going higher. “She’s still seven in the world but she has created so much space between seven and eight and that next little cluster of Emma Navarro plus three or four, she is not leaving the top eight for the foreseeable future.” Zheng has no doubt been very impressive this season, but her recent 3-6,4-6 loss against Aryna Sabalenka in the first group stage match in the WTA Finals yet again showed us the big difference between the two. What does Sabalenka think of this 22-year-old Chinese superstar?

Aryna Sabalenka heaps praise on Qinwen Zheng for having a big impact on making tennis popular in China

She won the gold medal for her nation at the Paris Olympics, but shortly after winning the medal, she claimed, “I have become the first Asian player to win the Olympic gold. I have also made history. However, I still have a long way to go, as winning a Grand Slam has always been my dream.” She revealed that she always wanted to become one of the Asians who can inspire young ones and make them love tennis more. Finally, her incredible feat in Paris has now given her the stage that she has been looking for over the years, but she’s yet to fulfill all of her goals.

Aryna Sabalenka was the one who deprived her of accomplishing one of her goals earlier this season. She defeated Qinwen Zheng 6-3,6-2 in the final of the 2024 AO. Shortly after winning the title in Melbourne, we heard Sabalenka say, “I know it’s really tough to lose in the final but you’re such an incredible player. You’re such a young girl and you’re going to make many more finals and you’re going to get it.”

Even during the Wuhan Open, we saw Sabalenka thanking Zheng for making tennis popular in China and praised her by saying, “Thank you so much Qinwen on winning the Gold Medal.” However, after that, we’ve seen some controversial moments featuring Qinwen Zheng’s cold handshake with Sabalenka at the same tournament. She barely made eye contact with the Belarusian after the 3-6,7-5,3-6 defeat to the current world number one in Wuhan. This moment sparked a few controversies among the fans.

Just before the start of the 2024 Wuhan Open, Aryna Sabalenka made a bold claim stating that she’d make sure Qinwen Zheng, “cannot overcome this mountain,” against her. Was it the source of this controversial moment? We don’t know, however, after winning the final, she highlighted the improvement Zheng has made over the last few months. Sprinkling a bit more masala to this epic rivalry, she concluded her statement by saying, “I’ll keep working hard make sure, even if she’s improving, I’m going to be improving more, and I’ll get more wins against her in the future.” Share your thoughts on Sabalenka’s dominance over Qinwen Zheng in the women’s Tour.