Qinwen Zheng was ruthlessly defeated yesterday, crashing out of Roland Garros in the very first round.
However, she has not garnered attention for that damaging loss, but rather for what happened in her press conference.
After all, in a heartbreaking show of emotion, the Chinese tennis superstar was brought to tears by a question she was asked by a reporter.
It has been a hugely challenging few years for Qinwen Zheng, who won the Olympic gold medal at Philippe Chatrier just over two years ago now.
And yet, with injuries having completely curtailed her career, she is now set to drop outside the world’s top 100.
Qinwen Zheng brought to tears by press conference question
Asked to assess the match, Zheng seemed to have no answer to explain her loss. She was simply outmanoeuvred by her opponent, Maja Chwalińska.
However, the straightforward nature of the 6-4, 6-0 scoreline drew question marks, to which she stated: “Of course it’s hard for me to take when I lost the match. It was really hard for me in the match today. That’s tennis sometimes.
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“The match didn’t go my way, especially a lot of the time I was going back to the court I felt there was no more space. Obviously she was doing well to play high balls with topspin. There’s nothing more I can say; I can only take the loss. Let’s see when I can move on.”
Then, when told she will now drop outside of the world’s top 100, the emotions became overwhelming.
As tears streamed down her face, she managed a short reaction to the Roland Garros press: “I didn’t pay too much attention to my ranking, but of course I need to start all over again, and that’s gonna be different. But I think it’s also gonna be kind of positive for me. For me, I think the problem was I needed more matches to get into rhythm.”
Zheng fell to her lowest ranking in four years after her loss in Rome. Now, the hole only gets deeper.
What injuries has Qinwen Zheng been suffering with?
It feels like, ever since the greatest moment of her career at the 2024 Olympics, Zheng has not quite been the same.
However, that is through no fault of her own.
Her 2025 campaign was completely derailed by a right elbow injury which required surgery, and since returning to the WTA Tour earlier this year, she has been unable to recapture her form of old.
The 23-year-old has won just seven matches in 2026, and even took a medical time-out yesterday to deal with an issue with her foot.
There is still plenty of time for Zheng to return to her old winning ways, but as she says, she will have to do it the hard way.
Qualifying for the bigger events and scrapping at second-tier tournaments are not what she would have expected over a year ago, but marks a sad new reality for this hugely unlucky star.
