Zheng Qinwen hit the court, then sprang back up, clenching her fist and roaring into the night. It wasn’t just a celebration. It was a release.
The 2024 Olympic gold medallist is back in the US Open third round, and more importantly, she feels like herself again.
From operating table to qualifying grind
Twelve months ago, Zheng was a fixture at the top of the women’s game, a former world No. 4 with a heavy forehand and a swagger to match. Then came elbow surgery, a recovery that dragged on, and a 2025 season that never really started.
She missed the Australian Open. The rhythm went first, then the confidence. The ranking followed.
“It takes a while for me to accept my ranking dropped to 125 and, OK, I need to actually play qualies,” she admitted.
For a player used to the biggest stages, the qualifying rounds at Flushing Meadows were a jolt. No packed stadiums. No prime-time billing. Just the sound of balls, footsteps, and the quiet hum of fans drifting between outside courts.
She didn’t like it. She also needed it.
Zheng had sunk so far that she had to fight her way into the main draw the hard way, three qualifying matches to even earn her spot in New York. The grind cut deep, but it sharpened something she feared she had lost.
Remembering how to win
“Before the surgery, for me winning is like drinking water -- everything comes natural, everything comes fluent,” she said.
Then came the long months of doubt. She played the best in the world, pushed them, but couldn’t quite finish them off.
“After my surgery, I had some tough matches against the best players in the world (and) I'm close but I don't get them. I totally lost the dynamic of how to compete.”
That is why Thursday’s 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 victory over Yulia Putintseva meant more than a simple scoreline. The match swung sharply. Zheng controlled the first set, lost her way in the second, then stormed through the decider.
The response in that third set mattered. She didn’t retreat. She raised her level, hit through the court, and embraced the fight instead of shrinking from it.
“Now after two, three months I really felt the first time in this tournament I find myself, I found my fire back during the competition,” she said.
The pressure finally told on Putintseva. The roar at the end told on Zheng.
Chasing the big courts again
For a player who once walked naturally onto the sport’s grandest arenas, the last week has been humbling. Two rounds on the outside courts. No guarantees. No assumptions.
“I used to always play on the big court,” she said. “I need to fight to get everything back.”
That fight now takes her to a marquee test: a third-round meeting with former Australian Open champion Madison Keys and, most likely, a return to one of the main stages at Flushing Meadows.
It is exactly the kind of match Zheng craves. A proven champion across the net, a big crowd, the lights, the noise. The sort of stage where a player who once treated winning “like drinking water” can find out if the old instincts are truly back — and whether this comeback is just a flicker, or the start of something serious.
