Zheng Qinwen Eliminated in Second Round of Australian Open, Revealing Four Surprises and Two Weaknesses
On January 15th, Beijing time, a major upset occurred in the second round of the new season's Australian Open women's singles. No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen was in poor form and ultimately lost two consecutive sets 6-7, 3-6 to Siegemund, failing to advance and bidding an early farewell to the tournament. After her victory, Siegemund was extremely excited, lying on the court to celebrate wildly. She also earned 130 points and a prize of 290,000 Australian dollars (approximately 1.31 million RMB).
Following Zheng Qinwen's elimination by Siegemund, four surprises and two weaknesses emerged.
Four Surprises:
-
Zheng Qinwen is ranked 5th in the world, while Siegemund is ranked 97th. The gap in both their abilities and rankings is significant. However, Zheng Qinwen's poor performance in this match, especially with no advantage in serving, combined with Siegemund's slight superiority in receiving, rallying, and baseline play, meant that the score remained close, with both players breaking serve once and going to a tiebreak. At a critical moment, Zheng Qinwen suddenly collapsed, continuously giving points to Siegemund, and unfortunately lost the first set, which was unexpected for most fans.
-
Last year, Zheng Qinwen managed to turn things around multiple times after losing a set, largely due to her good mentality and quick adjustments. However, she failed to do so this time, especially after being broken twice in the second set by Siegemund. Zheng Qinwen's mentality completely broke down, and her loss was not unjustified.
-
With her exit in the second round, Zheng Qinwen became the first top-eight seeded player to be eliminated from the women's singles at this year's Australian Open. It's quite surprising that she couldn't even reach the third round, let alone the quarterfinals or round of 16.
-
Siegemund, who is nearly ranked in the top 100, played exceptionally well. This was also her first career win against a top 10 player in a Grand Slam event, which is why she was so ecstatic after the match.
Two Weaknesses:
-
In this match, Zheng Qinwen's first serve was still unstable, especially in the first set, which was the main reason for her struggles to hold serve. Statistically, her first serve success rate was only 56%, and her second serve scoring rate was only 64%, both lower than Siegemund's. If this weakness isn't addressed, it will be challenging for her to win a Grand Slam championship in the future.
-
Additionally, Zheng Qinwen had 25 unforced errors throughout the match, which is quite high. She also made 21 unforced errors in her previous match against a qualifier. This issue has appeared in two consecutive matches, making it very difficult for her to win.
In 2022, 2023, and 2025, Zheng Qinwen was stopped in the second round of the Australian Open three times. Only in 2024 did she reach the final, ultimately finishing as the runner-up. Now, with her early exit, she has been docked 1230 points, causing her real-time world ranking to drop to 7th place.