Zverev secures No.1; Will Zheng Qinwen win a major?

Catherine Whitaker (0:00)

Hello, this is Rose Mercier, halfway between Montreal and Toronto, in Kingston, Ontario. You're listening to The Tennis Podcast.

Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, introduced with Poise and Aplomb there by Rose Mercier in Canada. If you would like to introduce one of our shows, then that is one of the options available when you become a friend of The Tennis Podcast. Just head to our show notes and follow the link to get yourself all sorts of benefits, including more than 24 bonus shows a year, ad-free listening and access to our online community, The Barge. David Rose has been listening for many years, she says, since just before student Matt joined. So she knows the dark days of just us.

David Law (1:03)

They were dark. I mean, that's more than 10 years ago. When Matt used to be a listener, and was it any good, Matt?

Matt Roberts (1:13)

It was great. That was why I sent you a tweet, David, saying, can I get involved?

David Law (1:19)

That fishing for a compliment worked. Excellent.

Catherine Whitaker (1:24)

Hello, Matt. How are you?

Matt Roberts (1:27)

I'm fine. Thank you. Yes. One week to go until Wrexham.

We will be on our way this time in a week.

Catherine Whitaker (1:34)

We will be on the, what motorway is it? M40 and M6, potentially a bit of M6 toll if we're feeling fruity.

David Law (1:50)

And it could last one point. Yeah. And then you turn around again.

Catherine Whitaker (1:55)

And I could have watched it on BBC iPlayer. Yeah.

But I am nonetheless naively very excited. I note, Matt, that some tennis has gone into your diary. We all have shared social calendars, which is a riot, by the way. I note that some tennis has gone in your diary for late on Sunday night.

Matt Roberts (2:18)

No, that was yesterday I played tennis.

Catherine Whitaker (2:22)

Oh. But was it weirdly late? Did you play it sort of 9pm?

Matt Roberts (2:26)

No, 10am. Who's been messing with my calendar? Maybe I have messed up my calendar.

Catherine Whitaker (2:31)

Did you miss enter it the first time around? This is starting to sound creepy now.

Matt Roberts (2:36)

I played yesterday in the morning and I'm playing on Thursday night at 9pm clashing. So I'm going to miss the traitors on Thursday, all in the dedication of trying to peak for the one point slam.

Catherine Whitaker (2:49)

Will that be your last hit before the one point slam?

Matt Roberts (2:54)

Yes, it will. And let me tell you after the hit I had yesterday, I need the hit on Thursday.

Catherine Whitaker (2:59)

Okay. All right. Is this with your coach? Is this with Coach Trez on Thursday?

David Law (3:04)

Yeah, absolutely.

Catherine Whitaker (3:06)

Is he focusing on technical tactical stuff or is he focusing on confidence, the mental side of the game?

Matt Roberts (3:14)

Very much all intertwined, I would say. We have broad sessions focusing on everything, really.

Catherine Whitaker (3:23)

No stone left unturned.

Tickets still available, by the way, for the one point slam. We'll pop the link in our show notes. We'd love you to come and support Matt and bring signs. We're encouraging elaborate signs a la Mirra Andreeva, supporting Conchita Martinez at Wimbledon last year. But if you're unable to make it, then remember, it is on. I can't believe this still. It is on the BBC iPlayer, which is free, folks. It's free, it's universal. Not if you're outside of the UK, but get a VPN and you'll be absolutely fine. I'm suggesting watch parties. Let's make this a real thing.

Great.

David Law (4:11)

Don't mess around, Matt.

Catherine Whitaker (4:12)

No pressure on you, Matt. You need to channel Zheng Qinwen, the champion of Beijing, the wild card at the start of the week, her first 1000 title. She beat Mirra Andreeva 7564 to win that title. She had beaten Aliza Mertens in the semi-finals, Andreeva had beaten, taken apart, in fact, Nicola Bartinkova, both of those straight sets. It makes Zheng Qinwen the first Chinese player to win that title in Beijing. And I'm pretty sure the first player to do karaoke in her victory ceremony. How good and how good a moment was this for Zheng Qinwen, David?

David Law (4:58)

Oh, fantastic. I mean, it was just, I love the way she just took the responsibility of being the home player and being the one that everybody wants to win.

And it didn't seem like a weight on her shoulders at all. It seemed to just push her on and made her even more daring with her shot making. She just sort of got better as the tournament went along. And then when I saw Andreeva take apart Nicola Bartinkova in the previous round, you know, you're thinking, wow, you're going to have to play well to hit through this player. That's the point is sort of, you know, she's so solid and she's just got such an amazing counter attacking back and she's striking the ball. So, well, how are you going to be able to hit through her? Well, she showed there was a we were talking about the acoustics of that place when Novak Djokovic was playing Alexander Zverev and those acoustics were on full display in this match. You know, if you just closed your eyes and and listen to one of the streams of our commentary and just listen to the balls being struck. Oh, it was so pure and and the thing is that Zheng's shots, every one of them had that sound, that popping sound of clean ball striking and every one of them except the forehand had it for Andreeva. When the ball went on to her forehand, it was either slightly shonky, slightly spinny or a slight forehand and I'm afraid that did for her, I think. I think that as young at top form is a real problem for a player like Andreeva in that way and to see her just not be self-conscious at all seemingly when she's celebrating and doing the karaoke was just wonderful really, I thought and yeah, I mean, I'm just glad she won the tournament frankly, because being a home player, getting that sort of atmosphere, that's what you want.