As Wimbledon 33 seed, 33-year-old Zhang Shuai made a beautiful debut last night - sweeping Japanese player Misaki Doi 6-4, 6-0. What’s more meaningful is that the veteran who competed in Wimbledon for the eighth time finally broke the curse of six first-round exits at the All England Lawn Club. After reaching the quarterfinals in 2019, he broke through the first round of Wimbledon for the second time in his career. .
Facing a Japanese opponent ranked 108th in the world, Zhang Shuai won this game without any suspense. Especially in the second set, Zhang Shuai had an obvious offensive advantage. Misaki Doi made more and more mistakes on her own initiative, and finally Zhang Shuai ended the battle by "giving an egg". The entire game lasted only 65 minutes, and Zhang Shuai advanced strongly.
This time at Wimbledon, it seems that the goddess of luck has favored veteran Zhang Shuai. Before the game, the famous American player Case announced his retirement due to injury. Zhang Shuai, ranked 41st in the world, became the No. 33 seed and replaced Case in the draw. His opponent in the first round was from the original draw. No. 17 seed Rybakina was replaced by Misaki Doi, which made Zhang Shuai's advancement path a little easier.
Perhaps luck always comes to those who are prepared. In this year's grass court season, Zhang Shuai's performance was impressive - at the Nottingham station, he broke into the women's singles quarterfinals and won the women's doubles; at the Birmingham station, he reached the women's singles and women's doubles finals, but withdrew due to physical reasons. In the grass-court season before the start of Wimbledon, Zhang Shuai participated in two tournaments and won one championship and two runner-up finishes. With this, he regained China's number one women's singles position from Zheng Qinwen.
Due to scheduling issues in Birmingham, Zhang Shuai, who finished the women's singles semi-finals, had to play in the women's singles and women's doubles finals that day. The exhausted veteran withdrew from the singles final midway and later also withdrew from the women's doubles final. "I didn't finish the game, maybe because I was too old." Zhang Shuai apologized on the court after the game and expressed his sincere gratitude to the women's singles champion Maya. "I want to thank Maya. She has helped me a lot in the past two weeks. , we train and warm up together every day. My coach is not around these days, and I don’t know who to look for without her. Congratulations to Maya for winning the championship for two consecutive weeks. "
Although I didn't win the championship, Zhang Shuai. But they gained a commendable "fairy friendship" on the field. The 26-year-old Brazilian girl also stood up at this time, wiped away her tears, and responded emotionally, "Why can't we have friends on the tour? You are not only an excellent player, but also a very special person. . Winning and losing in tennis will always pass, but humanity will always be there.” This touching video of the conversation also became popular on the Internet.
For Zhang Shuai, looking down on success or failure on the court may be her greatest growth. Starting from the first time she entered the Grand Slam main draw at the US Open in 2008, Zhang Shuai's Grand Slam career was full of twists and turns. Since then, she has entered the Grand Slam main draw fifteen times in a row and failed in the first round. Such a terrible The curse was not broken until the 2016 Australian Open, when the 27-year-old Zhang Shuai reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, creating his best personal Grand Slam record.
Anxiety, disappointment, helplessness, and self-doubt once tormented the young Zhang Shuai, but the long test also developed her strong heart. Her personality charm has won the respect of more and more opponents, and she has become a "praising player" on the field. Good girl” and “a very special person”.
In addition, Wang Qiang , who was not optimistic before the game, also created a surprise in the first round of Wimbledon. In the first round that ended last night, he upset the 14th seed Bencic. The 30-year-old veteran has competed for six times. In the main draw of Wimbledon, he passed the first round for the third time.
There are six Chinese Golden Flowers participating in this Wimbledon. In addition to the "first sister" Zhang Shuai and Wang Qiang, two veterans, Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xinyu, Zhu Lin, Wang Xiyu entered the main draw based on their rankings. Since Wang Xinyu temporarily withdrew from the competition last night, Yuan Yue took over as the lucky loser in the qualifying round. However, the 23-year-old was eliminated by No. 20 seed Anisimova, ending her first Grand Slam trip. In the other two games, Wang Xiyu, a young player born in the 2000s, lost to German golfer Niemeyer, and Zhu Lin lost to former US Open semifinalist Vic Mayer. Both of them stopped in the first round.
Author: Wu Shu
Editor: Gu Miao
