The Asian swing of the tennis tour is well and truly underway, and already we have seen a handful of stunning tournaments with some blockbuster matches.
Naturally, many will flock to laud the Beijing meeting between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, but Wuhan’s offering just last week would put up quite the fight against it given some of the points played.
However, the conduct of one of the finalists in that latter event has drawn some scrutiny.
Speaking on her podcast, just after she pinpointed the exact moment where her opinion on Rafael Nadal changed, she would later move on to more current events.
And, having watched the Wuhan Open final with interest, she was supremely complimentary of the two finalists and the show they put on.
However, the conduct of Qinwen Zheng, the eventual loser, left Stubbs somewhat disgruntled.
She admitted: ‘I don’t know what Qinwen was thinking when she was running back and started yelling at the linesman. What is the umpire doing? She was in the right position. He should have said you cannot yell at the lines person. She was yelling at the lines person in Chinese as well, so we don’t even know what she was saying.
‘She was so far away from that lines person trying to get that ball back in court and then she missed and started yelling at him. I was like dude you weren’t even close to him, leave him alone.
‘Then there was time in the match – and I know I am going to get so much hate – but also Sabalenka had already hit a serve and it was such a pivotal point, it was 3-2 in the third, 15-30. And she tells Aryna I’m not ready because the ball kid was moving behind her, but I’m sorry – that is bull**** from the umpire.
‘Sabalenka had already hit the serve, I was watching, Qinwen did not put her racket up or say stop until the serve was hit and then she was like ‘woah, woah, woah, I wasn’t ready’. Sorry, that’s happened to me, if you don’t put your racket up or say stop. That was so bad.’
Despite this backlash, few can deny the stunning year that Zheng has enjoyed.
And, the progress she continues to make was brilliantly exemplified in how she went toe-to-toe with a player as unstoppable and in-form as Aryna Sabalenka, who blew her away in their last meeting in the Australian Open final.
That run to her maiden Grand Slam final was the perfect start to 2024 for the Chinese athlete, who has since become an icon in her home country.
Winning gold at the Paris Olympics certainly helped her case, as she added to her sole WTA title from this year too.
Now having reached a Masters 1000 final, and equalling her career-best ranking of seventh in the world, Zheng is expected to be a major threat at the WTA Finals, should she snag that final spot up for grabs.
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