Zheng Qinwen says she has no friends on the WTA Tour and highlights that she doesn’t want any because she treats tennis as a job and thinks being close to rivals could mentally distract her in certain matchups.
Although players at the top of the game regularly compete against each other, there are several examples of very close friendships on the Tour. Most notably, Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa call themselves best friends, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula also have a great relationship, while Ons Jabeur is pretty much good with everyone. In recent years, some WTA stars have even suggested that the feeling is that the relationships and friendships in tennis have never been better.
However, when it specifically comes to Zheng, she is not known as someone who hangs around much with colleagues. And not only that, some stars called out the world No. 7 and very openly indicated that she was not liked much in the locker room.
This week, the top-8 players from this season are competing at the WTA Finals – Zheng, Sabalenka, Gauff, Pegula, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova. Since this is the Chinese’s first appearance at the prestigious season-ending tournament, she was asked if any of those players was her friend. And the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medalist kept it very honest when answering the question.
“My answer is very clear, I always prefer to keep my distance from other players. There is a lot of competition between us. I am a very sensitive girl. I don’t feel like I can become friends with someone and then have to compete on the court, I wouldn’t focus 100% to fight,” Zheng explained.
“As soon as I encourage myself, I would feel weird. Deep down, if it’s a friend, I want her to win and succeed in life. It’s the opposite of what I think in a tennis tournament. “Once I understood that, I decided not to try to make friends on the tour. There are so many people outside the WTA, why should I make friends here? I come here to compete with them, to win the match. That’s my opinion.”
When asked how does her relationship with others look then, this year’s Australian Open runner-up revealed that she usually says a simple hi and that’s it.
“We are just saying hello. Sometimes say congrats to your great season. No more talk with no more people. I never go for more. I don’t try to go for more, as well, yeah,” she added.
Emma Navarro, Donna Vekic publicly called out Zheng
En route to winning gold medal in her Olympic debut, the Chinese survived a major scare in the round-of-16 when she came back from a set down to beat Navarro 6-7 (7) 7-6 (4) 6-1. After the match, the American had some strong comments about her rival, saying she “did not respect her as a competitor.”
“I just told her (Qinwen) I didn’t respect her as a competitor… I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect,” the world No. 8 said.
A couple of days later, Zheng ousted Vekic 6-2 6-3 in the final. Afterward, the Croatian accused the 22-year-old of pulling some dirty tricky and said there were “controversial stories” about the Chinese.
“She was constantly delaying the service, as soon as someone’s voice was heard or someone moved in the crowd. She took time-outs completely incorrectly. We cannot expect spectators to sit like statues. There are a lot of controversial stories about her, but I won’t talk about that now,” Vekic told Croatian paper Jutarnji.
How Zheng reacted when told about Navarro’s comments?
To no one’s surprise, the American’s comments drew major attention. And reporters wanted to know if the 2024 Australian Open finalist had something to say about that. But she refused to get into the war of words with Navarro, offering a politically correct answer.
“If she is not happy with my behavior, she can come and tell me. I would like to correct it to become a better player and a better person. I am happy that she told me. I will not consider it an attack because she lost the match. She told me that she doesn’t know how I have so many fans. It seems that she is not happy with my behavior towards her,” Zheng said at the time.
Meanwhile, the world No. 7 lost her opening match at the WTA Finals versus Aryna Sabalenka but then defeated Elena Rybakina.to keep her chances of qualifying for the semifinal alive.