Zheng Qinwen was straight honest with Chinese reporters following her Beijing exit as the world No. 7 revealed that she was greatly impacted by the lack of sleep and that her fall occurred because she wasn’t mentally as sharp and focused as she needed to be.
In her first tournament of the year on Asian soil, the home favorite reached the semifinal and the hope was that she could land her maiden WTA 1000 title in front of her fans. But unfortunately for the 21-year-old, those dreams ended on Saturday after Karolina Muchova handed her a 6-3 6-4 defeat.
Going into the match, the expectation was that it would probably be a tight battle without much separating the two.
“Well, I’m just really tired. No energy. That’s it,” Zheng said at the beginning of her press conference.
After starting her Beijing run with back-to-back wins in two sets, the fifth-seeded Chinese tennis star was down by a set in each of her next two matches before coming back to beat Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva, respectively. The Andreeva match was particularly tough because it lasted two and a half hours and finished late.
“I think the positive thing is I know what I’m capable of doing. This match, I lacked energy and didn’t sleep well because I had a late night yesterday, it’s tough to perform…
