Zheng Qinwen got off to a good start to the 2025 grass court season and reached the quarterfinals of the women's singles on the grass court for the first time

In the early morning of June 13, Beijing time, in the second round of the WTA 500 London Station (Queen's Cup), the top seed of the tournament, Zheng Qinwen of China, defeated the American player Kessler with a score of 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, and won the grass court tournament at the same time, and entered the quarterfinals of the grass court tour for the first time in his career.

Zheng Qinwen got off to a good start to the grass court season and reached the quarterfinals of the grass court tournament for the first time

This year's Queen's Cup is different from previous years. Historically, the men's focus of the tennis tournament has been a major change – the women's tournament is back for the first time in 52 years. As the first stop of the grass court season, the Queen's Cup has successfully attracted many tennis stars with its unique charm.

In this event, the women's singles champion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, China's Zheng Qinwen, was listed as the top seed and had a first-round bye. In the second round, Zheng Qinwen ushered in an American playerKesslerKessler is currently ranked 42nd in the world. It is worth mentioning that this match is the first head-to-head confrontation between Zheng Qinwen and Kessler in their careers.

In the first set, Zheng Qinwen won steadily with a strong serve. In this set, she scored 83.3% of her first serve and hit a total of five aces. Especially in the service game, she contributed three aces to take the lead 6-3. In the 10th game of the second set, Zheng Qinwen was broken in his unbreakable service game and lost 4-6, bringing the big score to 1-1.

In the deciding set, Zheng Qinwen's performance was up and down. In the fourth game, she was broken by Kessler with a 40-0 lead, and the big score fell behind 1-4, and the situation was very unfavorable. However, Zheng Qinwen quickly made adjustments and broke the score to a 4-4 draw.

In the 11th game, Zheng Qinwen completed the key break and ushered in his own serve to win the game. In this game, Zheng Qinwen started 0-30 and was taken out of break point by her opponent, but she was resilient, scored consecutive points to survive, and finally successfully held serve and sealed the victory of the deciding set 7-5.

The match lasted 2 hours and 11 minutes, and Zheng Qinwen made 10 aces, but also sent five double faults, defeating Kessler 2-1 and reaching the quarterfinals of the grass court tournament for the first time in his career.

In an interview after the match, Zheng Qinwen first talked about the mental activity when the final winning point won the match: "Actually, I was very nervous because it was my first grass court match of the season, and it was also my first time playing at the Queen's Club, and it was also the first women's match here in 50 years. I think it's a great honour to play on this field. And I was down 4-1 in the third set, so it wasn't easy. ”

On how to adjust when she was down in the third set, she said: "It was very difficult because the score became very fast and by the time I realized it was 1-4 down. I can only concentrate and try to fight back. I think she played really well in the second set, which was tough for me. But either way, I hope I'll get better and better on the grass. It's really late tonight, so thank you all for still being here to support me. ”

Finally, she expressed her expectations for this competition: "I am looking forward to the next competition and will try to improve my performance on grass. I've always believed that I could get the grass right, but the last two years have not been smooth for some reason. I hope this year will be different because I've really put in a lot of effort. ”

Next, Zheng Qinwen will face the former US Open champion and local player in the quarterfinalsRaducanu。 The latter defeated Slamkova in straight sets in this round to advance.