Olympic champion Zheng welcomes China’s tennis boom

TOKYO – Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen said Thursday that tennis has become so popular in China that players are having difficulty reserving courts and finding coaches.

With her triumph in Paris, Zheng became the first Chinese player to win Olympic singles tennis gold, sparking an unprecedented wave of interest in the sport in her homeland.

In recent months, tournaments have been held in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities in front of sell-out crowds, with local players enjoying unprecedented success.

Zheng is playing at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she began her season on Thursday with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima.

The 22-year-old top seed said tennis in China is thriving at all levels, not just professional sports.

“After I won the Olympics, tennis became more popular in China,” said the world number seven.

“Ordinary people started learning about tennis as a sport.

“I just heard that in China it is difficult to book a tennis court and also find a tennis coach. It wasn’t like that before.”

Zheng is not the only Chinese player to find success on the men’s and women’s tours.

Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen also won medals at the Paris Olympics, taking silver in mixed doubles.

Zhang and Bu Yunchaokete then played an all-Chinese semifinal at the Hangzhou Open last month.

Bu, 22, turned heads at the China Open in Beijing by defeating sixth seed Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals before losing to world number one Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals.

Zheng said professional success has an impact on grassroots sports in China.

“All parents think tennis is a really good sport, so they want their kids to play tennis too,” she said.

Zheng came to Tokyo after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Wuhan Open.

On Friday she will face Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals.

“I tried to explore more things in my game, go to the net more and be more aggressive than before,” Zheng said after her win over world No. 57 Uchijima.

“I think it’s time to add new things to my game.”

AFP