No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen came from behind to notch her first win in three meetings over Leylah Fernandez, advancing 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 in 2 hours and 29 minutes to reach the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open quarterfinals.
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Fernandez had got the better of Zheng twice previously, edging her 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(3) in the 2022 Monterrey second round and then repeating the victory 7-5, 6-3 in this year's Doha third round. However, Zheng has been surging in the second half of 2024. The Chinese No.1 reeled off the last eight games in a row and has now won 22 out of 25 matches since Wimbledon, including a gold-medal run at the Paris Olympic Games and a semifinal showing last week in Beijing.
Zheng's victory in this clash between 22-year-old Grand Slam finalists puts her into her eighth quarterfinal of the season. She will bid to reach back-to-back semifinals on home soil against No.3 seed Jasmine Paolini. The Italian reached her sixth quarterfinal of the year -- and first since making the Wimbledon final -- with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of lucky loser Erika Andreeva. Zheng has won both of her previous meetings with Paolini, in the Palermo final and Zhengzhou semifinals last year.
How did Zheng turn the match around?
In the first set, Fernandez successfully blunted Zheng's power with her courtcraft and ability to raise her game when needed. Zheng gained the first break for 3-2; Fernandez immediately broke back to love. At 5-5, Zheng threatened once more with a 0-30 lead on Fernandez's serve. The Canadian found some of her boldest winners of the day to hold. In both games, Fernandez found key volleys to come through; overall, she won eight of 10 net points in the first set.
Zheng's first serve percentage is often a key statistic for her, and in the opener it was just 53%. But as the match progressed, it was the improvement to her second serve that proved crucial to the turnaround. She landed just 46% of her first serves in the second set, but won 79% of her second-serve points compared to 53% in the first set. By the decider, both serves were near-impenetrable. Zheng landed 79% of her first serves, and won all of the points behind it; indeed, she only dropped two points behind her second delivery.
What was the turning point?
In the third game of the second set, Zheng fired a forehand winner to peg Fernandez back to deuce on her serve, then turned to have words with her opponent's team. Fernandez took issue with this, but when play resumed promptly double faulted. From that point on, the momentum shifted. Zheng ultimately broke Fernandez with another forehand winner, and would not be taken to deuce on her own serve again as she began to run away with the match.
"Actually, I was distracted in the first set by what the dad is saying because Leylah was on the other side," Zheng explained afterwards. "He was always talking, 'C'mon, c'mon,' before I start to return. That's why I think I lost the game when I was 0-30, because I was a little bit distracted.
"After that he was continue doing. Plus the pain I had in the stomach, the fight against the opponent. One moment I cannot hold more. I said to him, 'You must to talk before I start to return?'"
Zheng agreed that letting it all out had been a turning point for her.
"After that actually I start to feel better, because is what I have in my heart," she continued. "I didn't say anything unrespectful. I just say what I feel without bad word."
Did Fernandez and Zheng play the point of the tournament?
As Fernandez battled to cling on in the second set, the pair had the Wuhan crowd in raptures as they ran each other up, down and side to side. For 16 shots, Fernandez and Zheng used every inch of the court as they sought to out-maneuver the other with sharp angles, drop shots and wrong-footers. Eventually, a Fernandez backhand proved too hot to handle for Zheng, whose own attempted pass in response drifted wide.