But it's even more worth looking forward to, Zhang Zhizhen: Late Achievements in China | Men's Singles | Zhang Zhizhen

In the third round of men's singles at the 2023 French Open, which ended on the evening of June 3rd Beijing time, Chinese player Zhang Zhizhen was overturned by the 4th seed and last year's French Open runner up, Rudd, after winning the first set, and lost 1:3, thus ending his position in the round of 32 men's singles at the French Open. Although Zhang Zhizhen failed to further enter the top 16 of the men's singles of the French Open, his performance in the top 32 of the men's singles of the French Open has been the best performance of Chinese Mainland players in the men's singles of the French Open since the era of the Open.

A late bloomer tennis master

In March 2011, 14-year-old Zhang Zhizhen participated in a youth championship in Haikou, China against 15-year-old Cameron Nori. The British young player easily won the competition 6-2 and 6-0.

Nori is a left-handed player who performed well in his youth, but later continued to rise in college tennis matches until reaching the top 10 in the ATP world rankings.

Zhang Zhizhen's path to fame was not smooth, as he never surpassed 166th place in the world rankings during his teenage years. However, 12 years later, Zhang Zhizhen and Nori met at the Madrid Masters. The former reversed his opponent 2-1 and won the biggest victory in his career, becoming the first player to enter the fourth round of the ATP1000 Masters in Chinese Mainland men's tennis.

"Before the game, I never even thought that I would be in the second week of the Madrid Masters," said Zhang Zhizhen after the game. "Now I have succeeded!"

Wu Yibing and 18-year-old Shang Juncheng both reached the height of world number one during their teenage years, but Zhang Zhizhen is not such a "genius player". He has never even participated in a Grand Slam youth group competition and does not have a high youth ranking.

Zhang Zhizhen's father is famous football star Zhang Weihua, who used to play as a defender for Shanghai Shenhua team. His mother Qin Wei is a shooter. When Zhang Zhizhen was a child, the couple once thought about their son's future: "I hope his son can either become an athlete or join the military in the future.".

When Zhang Zhizhen was young, his father gave him two choices: swimming or playing tennis. In the end, he chose tennis. Zhang Zhizhen was selected by the Shanghai tennis team in the fourth grade of elementary school and became a professional athlete. While completing his studies, he began more professional training.

In 2013, Zhang Zhizhen, who was under 17 years old, teamed up with Wu Di to win the gold medal in men's doubles at the National Games, becoming the youngest national tennis champion.

In 2015, Zhang Zhizhen, who was under 19 years old, made it to the main tournament of the Shenzhen Open by qualifying and won the first round of the tournament by defeating Tian Tianhao. But then there were four years of ups and downs, until 2019 when he won his first challenge championship in Jinan and set a record for the highest ranking in Chinese men's singles in the same year. Then, it was another two years of dormancy. Until June 2021, he became the first Chinese Mainland men's tennis player to enter the Wimbledon men's singles competition since the Open era, and knocked on the top 100 last year.

At a height of 1.93 meters, Zhang Zhizhen's comprehensive skills and excellent mobility are all visible talents to the naked eye, not limited to serving. On the court, he is full of murderous spirit; Off stage, he is polite and humble, relaxed and humorous. Strong self-control is an important weight for him to complete his transformation.

Correct name: "Even red soil can work"

This is Zhang Zhizhen's first professional appearance in the men's singles tournament at the French Open. In the first round of the match, he received a withdrawal gift from his opponent Rajovich. In the second round, he won 3-0 against Argentine player Tilante, and his real-time world ranking soared to 54th place, overtaking Wu Yibing and returning to the top spot in China.

In the impression of fans, Chinese men's tennis players are generally not good at playing clay tournaments. Before Zhang Zhizhen's breakthrough in Madrid to become one of the top eight, the Chinese Mainland men's tennis team could not even win a clay tour. However, by comparison, Zhang Zhizhen's experience in red soil is much richer. He often took the initiative to adapt to clay courts during his early training abroad. In the 2022 season, out of the 22 races he participated in, 11 were all clay events. Zhang Zhizhen had previously revealed his experience in playing clay games: "The overall rhythm on clay court is relatively slow, and everyone can focus on the bottom line. Unlike hard ground with so few shots, clay is a great test of patience." Zhang Zhizhen, who is 1.93 meters tall, has a good serve, which will help him establish an advantage with forehands on the bottom line.

Zhang Zhizhen once wrote on Weibo after the 1/4 final of the Madrid Masters, "There is no limit to the sky." This is the lyrics from Deng Ziqi's representative work "There is no limit to the sky", which represents Zhang Zhizhen's confidence in his competitive state. The magical week in Madrid has brought his confidence to a peak.

Zhang Zhizhen is actually very familiar with the Roland Garros field, and he has played qualification matches here since 2021. Before the game, Zhang Zhizhen specifically talked about the adaptation of the French Open clay court: "The conditions of the court here are very good, the soil is very flat, there are not so many potholes, and there are relatively few irregular bounces. Unlike in Rome before, the soil is thick, the ball speed is slow, and there are also many irregular bounces."

For Zhang Zhizhen, the truly valuable and meaningful thing is that he was able to showcase his strength with a calm mindset by playing against the world's top players on the French Open stadium. This was Zhang Zhizhen's breakthrough in the "window paper" of the Grand Slam, and the biggest gain of this trip to the French Open.

Welcome "better times"

This is also after the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, three men's singles players from Chinese Mainland participated in the main event of two consecutive Grand Slam events. Has Chinese men's tennis ushered in its best era? When asked this question, Zhang Zhizhen, the oldest of the three contestants, said: There is no best, only better.

Starting from October last year, with the collective rise of new generation players such as Zhang Zhizhen, Wu Yibing, and Shang Juncheng, the performance of China Men's Open has made rapid progress. At present, in the latest ranking of men's tennis, in addition to Zhang Zhizhen and Wu Yibing entering the top 100, Shang Juncheng and Buyun Chaokete also made it to the top 200.

"There are three people now, maybe Wimbledon, maybe we will have four more in the future. I hope more and more Chinese players can participate in the main competition in the future, and I also hope that my ranking can not fall out of the main competition circle. This is my goal," said Zhang Zhizhen.

"When you see your name listed together with the names of the top ten players in the world on the big screen next to the field, it feels very different. I just want to showcase myself in such a big scene and on a large field." Zhang Zhizhen said, "The more I play with them, the more I can see how they choose different ways of playing at different times. These are all things that I need to learn and experience slowly."

Although he lost the game, Zhang Zhizhen showed infinite possibilities. Zhang Zhizhen, who is 1.93 meters tall, possesses the physical conditions of a high-level tennis player. He can advance to the third round in Roland Garros, the future is limitless.