On January 10, Beijing time, Zheng Qinwen, a Chinese player and No. 5 seed in the tournament, attended the pre-match press conference of the Australian Open.

Olympic gold medal, Grand Slam runner-up...... Zheng Qinwen ushered in a big harvest in 2024, and with the start of the new season, Zheng Qinwen did not dwell too much on the past, and she wanted to achieve more.

Zheng Qinwen attended the pre-match press conference

"I always felt like my training wasn't good enough." "I always think I can do better, and that's true for physical training, and it's true for rehabilitation. I said to the coach, 'I think I need to improve on my backhand straight, I think I need to improve on my extensions'. I always walk on the pitch with a 'we're not good enough' mentality. I'm in the top five in the world right now, but I'm still far from where I want to be. If I'm the boss of our team, then I think I'm a tough boss and I'm always motivating everyone to do better. ”

Although Zheng Qinwen did not explicitly state her goals, believing in a Grand Slam title is definitely what she wants. Zheng Qinwen is the only women's top 10 player in the world who did not participate in the warm-up match this Australian season (excluding Krejcikova, who retired due to injury), and although she had previously signed up for the United Cup, she eventually chose to retire.

In Ribba's absence, Zheng Qinwen's coach at the Australian Open is Dante Bottini, who has coached Kei Nishikori and Dimitrov, and said of the partnership: "We did a very good job together, he brought me some new perspectives, and I followed his advice. I didn't choose to play any warm-up matches before the Australian Open, because I think it's important to have a long enough winter training period, so let's see how it goes. ”

Zheng Qinwen reached her first Grand Slam final at last year's Australian Open, where she lost to Sabalenka and finished runner-up, and a year later, Zheng said she was "disappointed" with her performance.

"I could even say that I ruined my chances of winning with my own hands because I thought I could have done better." "So it took me a while to recover from that loss, and I learned a lot from it, and that's why every time I played against her, I was able to perform better." ”

'I'm really looking forward to the moment now, I don't think about anything about the past anymore because I realise that if I can focus on the present, I'll be a better person, a better player. I'm very excited to be back at the Australian Open, all of my team members, we all love playing in Australia. ”

Zheng Qinwen will make her Australian Open debut tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Beijing time, and her opponent will be qualifier Todoni.

(Compiled by Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)