Getting back into the swing of things

With elbow surgery putting her meteoric career rise on hold, Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen has embraced the layoff, using it to reset herself, physically and mentally, in order to scale greater heights with more consistency.

One month after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on her right elbow, Zheng, a super competitive athlete nicknamed "Fire" as a junior and known as "Queen Wen" now, has finally come to terms with the grueling nature of professional tennis — failure is an integral part of the job, and growing from pain is part of the elite game.

In a recent interview with China Media Group, the reigning Olympic champion opened up about her up-and-down season so far, her maturing mental game and the drive to win her first major.

"'Every inch of growth comes with a bit of pain.' That's a saying that has resonated with me recently," said Zheng, whose injury-plagued 2025 season was put on indefinite pause after a first-round defeat to Katerina Siniakova at Wimbledon.

As the pain in her surgically repaired elbow eases, the challenge of living with the mental and emotional scars of every disheartening loss remains a formidable one, Zheng noted.

As encouraging as all the triumphant moments on court are, highlighted by her history-making Paris 2024 win, setbacks — such as early exits at majors, upsets against opponents that, on paper, she should be beating and reoccurring injuries — can also push her forward if handled in the right way, she said.

And she's learned to traverse the hard path better, drawing strength from the best in the business.

"You need to learn how to coexist with pain," Zheng said in the interview following a ceremony on Saturday where she was named among the 10 most "nation-moving" figures across all walks of life in 2024 by CMG for her Paris heroics.

"I've started to practice and I can play now, though I still feel it in my elbow. How to live with pain and control it is part of the everyday routine of a pro athlete.

" (Rafael) Nadal basically carried injuries with him throughout the majority of his career and still ended up becoming one of the game's greatest. His stories are so inspiring for me.

"There will always be ups and downs in professional tennis. The 2025 season didn't go easy on me in the beginning, with my performance affected by the injury.

"But, I told myself it's only temporary, and that I should focus on the process (of my comeback)."

Having already decided to skip the US Open due to her lengthy rehab, Zheng seems quite positive about returning to action in time for the hard-court season's China swing, beginning with the WTA 1000 China Open, the main draw of which kicks off on Sept 24.

Ten days after her surgery, Zheng's new fitness coach Gabriel Echevarria began posting photos on Instagram showing that Zheng's endurance training and strength and conditioning sessions are progressing well and are on track.

Should she come back 100 percent fit, Zheng's season-ending campaign will garner high expectations, considering some of her 2025 highlights when she was healthy.

After having lost to Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka six times in a row, Zheng backed up her improved strength on clay with a career-first win against the world No 1 in their seventh encounter in the quarterfinals of the Rome Open in May.

To eventually outplay the mighty three-time major winner felt like scaling a personal mountain for Zheng, who faced criticism from fans and media for a perceived lack of fight during her first six losses to the power-hitting Sabalenka.

Yet, the challenge of getting over a higher obstacle — her own mental stability — at high-stakes moments still seems a tall task, underlined by Zheng's seventh defeat to Sabalenka in the quarters at Roland Garros, a month later.

A crestfallen Zheng, looking inconsolable after the straight-sets loss, summed up her failed attempt to tame her bitter rival again as a reflection of her mental vulnerability.

"I've always felt I have a fire burning within me and sometimes it consumes me when I want to win so much, so I can't focus on taking care of the process well," said the 22-year-old Hubei province native.

"The higher I climb on the professional stage, the more I realize that I've been competing against myself.

"I should try to learn to stay composed after each disappointment, move on with a positive mindset and focus on training the next day.

"I allow myself 24 hours to stay disappointed after each loss, and then I will get rid of all the negative emotions and start over."

Looking forward to the career ahead of her, Zheng admitted that winning a Grand Slam title remains high on her agenda, while she's not ruling out the opportunity to defend her Olympic gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

"It sounds a remote target right now, but I will, for sure, keep elevating my game until then, trying to improve myself to the best possible level (for LA28)," said Zheng, who's racked up five career singles titles on the WTA Tour and the Olympics.

Yang Hanchu contributed to this story.