Notoriously Known for Her Unfriendliness, Qinwen Zheng Finally Explains Her Tense Equation With Aryna Sabalenka and Others

Cold handshakes, tangling with the opponent’s bench, and arguing with line judges. Chinese WTA Qinwen Zheng may not be winning the prize for the most friendly player on the tour, but it doesn’t bother her. Emma Navarro has openly called out her disrespect and “cut-throat” nature in the last few months and Zheng’s behavior at the Wuhan Open didn’t do her any favors in that regard.

Earlier this season, Zheng registered arguably the biggest win of her career after clinching the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games. She has followed it up with some solid performances in the other tournaments of late and even reached the final of the recently concluded Wuhan Open, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka.

While her performances have been praise-worthy, Zheng’s on-court behavior has come into question. During the Wuhan Open final, she got into the face of a line judge, whom she thought was impeding her from playing a backwards shot over the shoulder. She furiously shouted at him before venting her frustrations to the chair umpire. Later as she lost the match, she barely made eye contact with Sabalenka while offering her infamous cold handshake.

She came under fire for this gesture, having treated the Belarusian similarly after their US Open clash. For a long time, Zheng has been called out for her lack of a friendly attitude on the court and how it affects her camaraderie with other players on the tour. But she is pretty clear in her head about how she wants to handle things.

After reaching the final of the Wuhan Open, Zheng is participating in the Ningbo Open where she is the second seed. During an interview with Vogue China a couple of days back, Zheng made a candid admission about making friends on the WTA Tour. She said, “I have not changed the thought (of not making friends on tour), because if I wanna make true friends, I’d want the best for them, but they’d also want to win, it’s difficult to compete with friends, they’d not be happy if they lose, and I’ll not be happy either if I lost.”

Her comments are in line with what she said earlier about being friends with players. Following Navarro’s comments after their Paris Olympics match about her, Zheng said, “I always say it’s tough to make friends when you’re always competing with each other in the sport. I am very friendly. But when I compete, it makes me feel like I can’t really make friends.”

Despite making it to the summit clash in Wuhan, Zheng’s journey there was filled with controversy. In the round of 16 match against Leylah Fernandez, Zheng had a go at her opponent’s box and later she had a tense moment with Fernandez as well, which brought her sportsmanship into question.

She was seen saying something to Leylah’s father Jorge, who is also her coach. This led to Fernandez and Zheng getting into a brief exchange before the situation was pacified by the chair umpire.

Talking about the incident later, she said, “Actually, I was distracted in the first set by what [Fernandez’s father] was saying because Leylah was on the other side. He was always talking, ‘C’mon, c’mon,’ before I started to return. That’s why I think I lost the game when I was 30-Love because I was a little bit distracted.”

Zheng is solely focused on her progress on the court and wants to improve every time. While that might be justified, it has rubbed many of her peers the wrong way. After losing to Zheng in the Paris Olympics, Emma Navarro lashed out at her opponent after having a brief exchange with her at the net.

She said, “I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor. I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect.” Navarro would double down on her criticism of Zheng during the US Open.

Yet Zheng remains unfazed and as always her attention is on her game and how she can get better. Following her loss to Sabalenka in the finals of the Wuhan Open, she opened up about her performances.

Qinwen Zheng on her recent performances: ‘I am doing better each time’

While her attitude has been questioned in recent times, Zheng has seen a steep rise on the WTA Tour. She has won a title this year and has achieved her career-best ranking of No. 7 in the world.

Speaking after her defeat against Sabalenka, Zheng said, “She forced me to see some of the weaknesses in my tactics. I really look forward to training. I look forward to the next match against her. After this loss, I’m feeling excited because I am doing better each time. There’s more room for improvement. I hope that I can close the gap and also can overcome this challenge.”

With Zheng rising to the seventh spot in the latest WTA rankings, she remains in the driver’s seat to qualify for the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The top seven ranked players automatically qualify for the year-ending championships and if Zheng qualifies, she will have a golden chance to avenge her Wuhan Open defeat against Sabalenka there, in case she comes across the Belarusian star again.