Qinwen Zheng enjoyed a solid start to her grass-court campaign, reaching the semi-finals at the Queen’s Club Championship.
On her way to that stage, she fought through a tough opening round match against McCartney Kessler, before overcoming a hampered Emma Raducanu.
However, during the latter match, the Chinese player been criticised for her conduct, with the Queen’s crowd not happy, groaning as Zheng continually halted play.
She then saw fit to repeat that feat against Amanda Anisimova, without the same success.
Zheng will attest that if her shoes are slippy, she has a right to change them as and when. The rules clearly state as such. However, the way she went about doing it and the timing of those changes, have left some calling foul.
Qinwen Zheng called out for changing shoes again at Queen’s
Journalist Matt Roberts is one such example who, speaking on The Tennis Podcast, implored Zheng to stop what he felt was a ‘tactic’ rather than a genuine issue.
He began by stating: ‘Yeah, I think I maybe gave her the benefit of the doubt yesterday because it was so early in the match and it was the first time we’d seen it, but for it to happen two matches in a row on your opponents serve, and today it happened two points after a change of ends.
‘You know, I don’t believe that the shoes went from playable to unplayable within those two points. I don’t specifically remember those two points off the top of my head, but I don’t think they were, you know, scampering around the baseline, breaking-your-shoes level of points.
‘And honestly, for it to have happened two matches in a row feels like a tactic from Zheng, and I feel like… I believe her when she says she’s uncertain about her footing on the grass and she was slipping a lot at the start of a match yesterday in particular, but I’m sorry, I think you’ve got to be doing that at the change of ends, or at least on your serve.’
He feared that acts like this would not be received well on tour, continuing: ‘And I think she doesn’t want to gain a reputation as someone who’s using those kind of… I would use the word tactics to try and disrupt an opponent, and look, she broke Raducanu’s service yesterday when it happened, she didn’t get the break today [against Anisimova].
‘It’s not like a be-an-end-all, huge determining factor necessarily. You know, there’s so much to play in a tennis match, we can maybe fixate on this and read too much into it because it’s good drama, but I think she would be wise to stop doing this, because, you just don’t want to get that kind of reputation.
‘And I think Raducanu and Anisimova have both dealt with it pretty well, actually.
‘You know, Raducanu made clear that the timing wasn’t ideal, she said. She was clearly not happy with it. And Anisimova just sort of stood up to it and managed to hold Spite it happening. So, yeah. Look, I love drama, but I don’t like to see that.’
Qinwen Zheng seems unbothered about what people think of her
Given some players have attested to having spiky interactions with the 22-year-old, Raducanu revealed her relationship with Zheng after the match as one reporter sought to see if their Chinese connection had seen them become more friendly.
It does seem like Zheng is far more focused on success than she is on cultivating friendships on the tour, which is a fair stance to take.
This is, after all, her job, and if that’s what it takes for her to be at her best then few can begrudge her.
Especially given she is the reigning Olympic gold medalist, having enjoyed a stellar past 18 months which included reaching her first Grand Slam final, a further two quarter-finals, and climbing to a career-high ranking of fifth.
That being said, she has come under fire at times, with Emma Navarro one notable detractor.
She stated last summer after a frosty exchange at the net: ‘I don’t want to go super into the weeds with it, but I think during that match and, you know, on the practice court and the last few times I’ve played her…I felt just a little bit disrespected by her.
‘But yeah, I think she didn’t necessarily treat me or the sport with respect. That’s why I said what I said after the match. But, yeah, that’s it.’
If it’s a winning formula for Zheng, she clearly won’t care what the people think.
