Chinese elite player Zheng Saisai (Xinhuanet file photo)
Chinese elite player Zheng Saisai won three qualifiers in a row and entered the stage of the last 28 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships 2016 on Monday by defeating Varvara Lepchenko from the United States 7-5, 6-1.
The first set lasted for one hour 28 minutes. In this neck-on-neck battle, Zheng had difficulties of finding her rhythm against Tashkent-born Lepchenko and her strong forehand which she extensively used. However, the Shaanxi-born rarely got upset about herself and often rose her self-motivating fist and shouted at herself "c'mon!" for winning tricky balls.
"She is really a good player and she fights a lot. So I was relieved to take the first set," said Zheng.
Although 10 centimeter shorter than her opponent, the 1.70 meter tall and right-handed Zheng tricked left-handed Lepchenko in the second set by playing mostly long balls into the corners. Her favorite drop shot proved to be risky because of the windy weather in Dubai.
Asked why she played a lot of long and high shots, Zheng explained her strategy.
"Since Lepchenko is strong in the baseline play in particular, I tried to push her back, and when I saw my chance I switched to play at the net," said Zheng, aged 22 and ranked 70 in the WTA list.
During the match, Zheng was supported by crowds of Chinese fans, residents of Dubai and Chinese tourists alike as thousands of travellers from China spent their Spring Festival holidays here these weeks, when temperatures climbed well above 24 degrees Celsius.
