Australian Open: Zheng Qinwen aims to follow Li Na into history books and become China’s second grand-slam singles champion
- Defending champion and world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka stands in the way of Zheng in Melbourne on Saturday
- ‘Queen Wen’ eyes a breakthrough triumph a decade after Li Na last reached these heights for China
History beckons for China’s Zheng Qinwen at the Australian Open on Saturday as she contests the women’s singles final bidding to follow in some illustrious footsteps.
The 21-year-old from Shiyan in Hubei province will enter the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne to face defending champion and world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, aiming to do as Li Na did a decade ago and lift the title.
“The feeling was incredible to arrive at my real first grand slam final, that’s [been] my dream since I was a kid,” Zheng said, touching on her three appearances last year in WTA events, two of which she won.
A winner in Palermo before tasting success on home soil at the Zhengzhou Open, she now enters more rarely charted territory. Should the player nicknamed Queen Wen go a step further, she will be only the second Chinese to own a grand-slam singles crown.
Li won the French Open in 2011, then three years later added an Australian Open after a final that the young Zheng watched with fellow school pupils in a classroom in Li’s hometown of Wuhan.
