The Golden Flower Derby at the Australian Open
Chinese players achieve consecutive successes at the Australian Open
China Sports News, Melbourne, January 18th, special reporter Ma Yiou reported: Four people played and three advanced. In the Australian Open singles competition on January 18, Chinese participating players delivered satisfactory results. In the next round of competition, Zheng Qinwen and Wang Yafan will perform the “Golden Flower Derby” in the women’s singles, while young player Shang Juncheng will challenge the famous Alcaraz in the men’s singles.
At the 2024 Australian Open, a total of four Chinese players have passed the first round of singles. Affected by rainfall, the game on the 18th was largely postponed, which once again caused Chinese fans and media to have “happy troubles” – several Chinese players were playing at the same time, and they didn’t know who to cheer for.
Zheng Qinwen took the lead in the 1573 court. The game has not yet started and the venue is almost full. This is the appeal of the “first sister” of the Chinese women’s tennis team. Zheng Qinwen, who is ranked close to the top 10 in the world, met his opponent Bolt in the second round. The latter was ranked 56th in the world. This was the first time the two met. Before the game, an interesting data showed that Zheng Qinwen had a record of 22 wins and 1 loss against players ranked below 50 in the world since the 2023 season. Bolt had defeated the top 20 players in the world three times before, which also made him The outcome of each game received more attention.
This was a head-to-head contest. The two started a break battle in the first set. Zheng Qinwen won the serve of his opponent and won the first set 6-3. In the second set, Zheng Qinwen took the lead at the end of the set. However, when his serve won the game, Zheng Qinwen encountered strong resistance from his opponent. After resolving multiple break points and missing multiple games, Zheng Qinwen After the point, Zheng Qinwen won the game thrillingly 6-3 to advance. This is the first time Zheng Qinwen has reached the third round of the Australian Open. She has also achieved the achievement of reaching at least the third round in all four majors.
After Zheng Qinwen won, many Chinese fans chose to continue to watch the game at the 1573 Stadium. Opposite the Chinese player Wang Yafan across the net was the former US Open champion Raducanu. This game was also exciting. After three fierce sets, Wang Yafan defeated Raducanu 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, setting a new personal best record in a Grand Slam and reaching the top 32 for the first time. She will compete in the next round. Start a showdown with Zheng Qinwen.
While the two Chinese Golden Flowers had consecutive victories at the 1573 Court, the men’s singles arena also launched a competition that attracted the attention of Chinese fans. Shang Juncheng had a fierce battle with the Indian player Nagar on the 13th Court. After losing one set 2-6, Shang Juncheng came back to defeat Nagar in three consecutive sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. The most impressive thing about Shang Juncheng in this game was his stable mentality. Although he lost the first set, he did not panic, but allowed the game to unfold at his own pace step by step. “As long as you stay steady, your opponent may make mistakes.” Shang Juncheng said after the game that he and his team had done enough homework before and found that his opponent may have physical problems in dealing with this kind of best-of-five-set game, so Preparations were planned. The experience of winning this game will also help him deal with subsequent games. In the next round, Shang Juncheng will face Alcaraz, staging a contest between China’s new generation and the future leaders of the world‘s tennis.
The only player who did not make it past the second round of singles that day was Zhang Zhizhen. He lost to the 21st seed, French player Enber, with a total score of 1-3.