How Zhang Zhizhen Captured His Wimbledon Milestone

It has been over six decades since China made its mark in world tennis championships with players like Chu Chen Hau and Mei Fu Chi dominating their tournaments. However, this is the first time that a player from the Red Dragon country in Zhang Zhizhen is making waves in the Open Era.

Back in June, the 24-year old Asian standout lost to Frenchman Antoine Hoang in a suspenseful five-set match that ended at 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2. But the loss did not deter him from pursuing his hopes of advancing to the second and third rounds in upcoming major tournaments. Though still young, the Chinese superstar is pretty much adamant about his goals of making a mark in tennis for his country. After giving up swimming for a racquet and taking advice from his footballer father, and shooter mother, Zhizhen was finally able to make history this year.

A defining match

Normally, there will be two or three Chinese qualifiers. The year 2020 saw Zhizhen as the only Chinese player to qualify, boosting his confidence for a flag spot at the higher rounds of Wimbledon because, as he said, it was difficult to see China in a sea of flags at the bottom.

During his match with Hoang, Zhizhen led twice despite a not so incredible start but later fell back behind. Zhang eventually regained his form and settled into the main draw match, breaking Hoang once more before sealing the set on a serve.

Hoang then took back the second set to level the match and went ahead on the first game of the third which Zhizhen broke back at 3-3. An eventual tie-breaker came with Hoang winning two sets to one before racing into a 3-0 lead in the fourth set. Perhaps the rain that fell after the penultimate set dampened Zhizhen’s spirits as he suddenly lost steam upon returning for the final set to give Hoang an easy 6-3 victory. Despite the difficult challenge, the Chinese player showed grace in defeat saying he knew he wasn’t the stronger player but was grateful for playing five competitive sets.

Perhaps the match somehow proved Zhizhen’s true mettle and if he continues to work harder in being competitive, we might just see the first Chinese player qualify for a final in a Grand Slam tournament.

The formative years

Zhang turned pro in 2012 but his improvement became apparent as early as his first ATP Tour at the 2015 Shenzhen Open. He went on to defeat bigger names including Japan’s Go Soeda in straight sets during the first round but eventually lost to the No. 6 Jiří Veselý, similarly in straight sets.

In 2017, he again qualified at the Shenzhen Open where he defeated World No. 39 Paolo Lorenzi in the second round before bowing out to Henri Laaksonen in the succeeding round. He regained his composure at the China Tennis Grand Prix Cup after winning against Te Rigele in three straight sets to capture the title. He again won two ATP challenger titles in 2019 and reached the second rounds at Zhuhai and Beijing as a wildcard holder wherein he gathered first-round wins against Dominik Koepfer of Germany and Kyle Edmund of the UK.

This year at Wimbledon, Zhizhen finally qualified for a Grand Slam Men’s Singles main draw in his young career and wrote history as the first Chinese male player in the Open era and joined the ranks of his countrymen Wu Di, Zhang Ze, and Li Zhe as the only Chinese male players to play singles in the main draw of a Grand Slam since 1968.

A dragon’s heart

Zhang further displayed impressive form during his early matches at Wimbledon with three wins in the qualifying rounds including a four-set upset of Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo. He is currently ranked No. 178 in the world and is far from eclipsing China’s greatest achievement in the sport when Chinese Hall of Famer Li Na won singles titles at the 2011 French Open and the 2014 Australian Open.

Understanding the weight of a promising career and the potential to make historical achievements for Chinese sports, Zhizhen knows his countrymen have high hopes for him. Probably even higher than he has for his own. After being the first to qualify for a main draw in the Open era, the young player approaches his future with such a calm demeanor as if it was truly essential to channel his inner champion. Besides, Wimbledon will not be the last we see of Zhizhen who said that this was only the beginning of something greater to come.

In his younger years, he was already exposed to athletics which honed his competitiveness and hunger for skills improvement. Sports runs in his blood and it helped him when his father gave him full discretion on which sport he wanted to excel in. By the age of six, he had found a high level of excitement in tennis, even more than in swimming or football. And though his father was once a prominent player for the Shanghai Shenhua F.C., the old man discouraged him from playing team sports so he could take the glory of winning on his own.

He joined the Shanghai tennis team at age 12 and was turning heads by the time he was 18 when he played at his first ATP Tour main draw and earned his first Top 100 victory in Beijing the following week. However, like many young players, injuries made dents in his self-esteem as he went on to play for the upcoming Futures where he struggled a bit with several losses.

A promising future

Fortunately, the well-trained player and innate sportsman within him refuse to quit. He had already developed his global competitiveness by training in Spain, the U.S., France, Italy, and Croatia against different players with different approaches and techniques. In France, he developed a strong bond with current world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia who eventually defeated him at the ATP 250 in Nice. But if his present showing is an indication of things to come, many are expecting the Chinese player to continue with his rise in Grand Slam tournaments. In last year’s pandemic-laden season, he reached his highest ATP ranking and he knows that the best route to the top is to take things one step at a time. If anything, it’s clearly about time that Chinese tennis players step up and claim the glory that has been there for their taking for quite a long time now. And Zhizhen knows that as well.

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