The scene in the stands at Roland Garros’s Court Philippe-Chatrier was dotted with vermillion banners, adding a glow to the already orangey air emanating off the red clay court.
These were Chinese flags—hundreds of them—waving in boisterous support for Qinwen Zheng, 21, who would soon take gold by defeating Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 in the women’s singles tennis final.
As she lay down on the dirt, eyes skyward and fists extended into the Paris haze, the win’s gravity seemed to register: Zheng had just forged the kind of history that extended far past the stadium and the moment. This was China’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport—and Zheng had made no secret of the fact that the Olympics were as, if not more, important to her than a Grand Slam.
“In China, we always believe a country’s honor is in front of personal success,” she said over a morning meeting at Nike’s Athlete House, tucked discreetly between the Stade de France and the Aquatics Centre in Paris’s St. Denis area, the day after her triumph. “I treated [the Games] differently—the emotion, the fight, the mentality: It felt different than every other tournament I’ve played.”
Born in 2002 in Shiyan, China, Zheng started playing tennis at age seven. At age eight, she moved, without her mother and father, to Wuhan for better coaching, and since adolescence she has deeply admired and emulated Chinese athletes, such as the tennis star Li Na and the runner Liu Xiang, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Games.
“It was really tough,” Zheng said, looking back at those early days. “My mom used to come visit on weekends. When she left, I would hold her leg and cry. When she was gone, I would always hold her jacket. This was until I was 13. After 13, my mom decided to quit her job and come stay with me full-time, just to have better growth and better care. After that, it got easier. And we moved to Europe when I was 17.”
Based in Barcelona, she has steadily risen the WTA Tour ladder over the past three years, with her ranking receiving a major boost when she reached the Australian Open finals in January, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. Currently Zheng is number seven in the world; as Olympics results do not count for points or prize money, her position in the rankings will not change as a result of her Paris triumph.
But no matter. Zheng performed exceptionally well on her road to gold, including toppling world number one Iga Świątek, who also happens to be a master on clay, having won the most recent four French Opens. (Zheng had fallen to Swiatek six straight times before their Olympics meeting.)
“With Iga, I was clear,” Zheng said. “I know why I lost to her before. I played rushed, I made too many unforced errors, I wanted to hit faster than her. I wanted to prove my power. But in these Games, I didn’t think like this.”
Against Vekic, Zheng varied her tenacity: Her backhands were cannonball-fast, but her forehands had a bit more shape, heavy with topspin but almost flicked in their return. Zheng also chased down drop shots with the proverbial jets on.
“If you asked me to stay three more hours to fight, I could do it,” she said of her drive and energy in Paris.
Zheng will travel next to Cincinnati for that city’s Open, a precursor to the US Open in New York, which starts in late August.
“The schedule this year has been crazy,” Zheng said. “Any holiday or celebration will be at the end of the year, but [the first thing I will do] is go to the beach, stay in nature, and jump in the water.” She’ll also likely partake in karaoke, one of her favorite pastimes: “I wish I could go to karaoke with my team right now. I am practicing during shower time, every day!”
Zheng is cognizant, too, of the effects her milestone achievement in Paris will have.
As we wrapped up our chat, she said, softly: “I was reading comments last night, because I have been offline the past two weeks. Some of the comments were talking about inspiration, and this makes me feel proud. I can give hope and some great imagination to young kids. If you watch my tennis and it brings you some extra strength in your life, that will make me happy.”