In the women's singles arena of the Australian Open, the results of the matches are always filled with various surprises and upsets. In the previous round, Siegemund had an excellent performance, causing a sensation by eliminating the No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen. It was expected that she would continue this momentum. However, in the third round of the women's singles, Siegemund was swept aside by the Russian veteran Pavlyuchenkova, ending her run there.
This third-round match, despite being held early in the day, attracted the attention of many Chinese fans due to the controversy surrounding Siegemund's elimination of Zheng Qinwen in the previous round. Before the match, although Pavlyuchenkova's world ranking was higher than Siegemund's, Siegemund had slightly higher support rates. After all, her performance in the previous round was too impressive. However, once the match began, it became clear that Pavlyuchenkova's strength had been underestimated by many.
As the 27th seed, she overwhelmed Siegemund's versatile playing style with her aggressive serving and powerful baseline attacks. She remained solid in her own service games and was even more dominant in return games, often scoring directly off returns and dealing with Siegemund's attacking serves exceptionally well. As a result, Siegemund was eliminated after only winning three games, leaving many domestic fans sighing in disbelief.
During this time, Zheng Qinwen's detractors began to stir up trouble again. Seizing on the outcome of Pavlyuchenkova sweeping Siegemund, they belittled Zheng Qinwen. The world-ranked Pavlyuchenkova, who has been ranked in the 30s for many years and has been relatively inactive, could sweep Siegemund, while the No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen was surprisingly defeated by Siegemund. Thus, they believed that Zheng Qinwen's strength did not match her ranking, saying, "With Zheng Qinwen's mentality and skills, if she doesn't change, she will only have the strength of a top 100 player," and such remarks were incessant.
But is this really the case? We dare not rashly conclude. However, there must be reasons for Zheng Qinwen's surprising loss. On one hand, "emotional issues" are an important factor. In the fourth game of the second set, she was penalized by the umpire for losing a serve. She explained that it was because she couldn't see the countdown timer due to obstruction, leading to a serve timeout. However, the umpire claimed that there were six timers around the court, and it was impossible not to see them. Following this, Zheng Qinwen emotionally broke down into tears and then made a double fault with a "net-front bounce." This sudden situation almost completely deprived her of any chance of a comeback. If not for this incident, she might have had the opportunity to drag the match into a decisive set.
After commentating on Zheng Qinwen's match, Yuan Jia stated that the biggest reason for her loss was emotional problems. He sighed, "I really didn't expect Zheng Qinwen to stop in the second round like this; it was still an issue with her emotions. In the past six months of playing tennis, I've deeply felt that once your emotions go wrong, no matter how you play, it just doesn't feel right. Tennis is even more brutal than football. Of course, the opponent Siegemund was also in great form, and everything she tried worked."
On the other hand, "inadequate preparation before the match" is also a reason for the loss. This inadequacy is reflected in two aspects: insufficient psychological expectations of the opponent's fighting spirit and inadequate tactical preparations to deal with the opponent's main strategy of slice and change. During the match, Zheng Qinwen appeared very "hesitant," undecided about whether to go to the net or change direction, which were all signs of insufficient preparation.
As one netizen put it, "This is competitive sports; it's unreasonable to say that since Zheng Qinwen lost, she is worse than Siegemund, who is ranked 97th, or much worse than Pavlyuchenkova, who is ranked 32nd. This is just a loss in a single match." Just as the saying goes, "Failure is the mother of success." Which Grand Slam champion hasn't gone through multiple failures before achieving success? Moreover, this is only the fourth year since Zheng Qinwen rose to fame (at the 2022 French Open), and one loss cannot negate her potential and strength. We should view the victories and defeats of athletes with a more objective and rational attitude, seeing the complex reasons behind the matches rather than rashly concluding based solely on the outcome of a single match.
Zheng Qinwen's loss this time is just a small hurdle on her path to growth. We look forward to her learning from this experience, adjusting her state, and demonstrating her true strength in future competitions. For fans, respecting the efforts of athletes and rationally viewing the outcomes of matches is also a quality that should be cultivated.
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