CHINA’S top-ranked ace Zheng Qinwen capped her impressive run at the Australian Open on Saturday with a career first runner-up finish at a major tournament, leaving Chinese fans stoked about a star in the making. Zheng, the second Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final and the first since Li Na’s title run at the 2014 Australian Open, failed to grab the championship in the final facing defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, being overpowered and outpaced by the world No. 2 in a 6-3, 6-2 loss in just 76 minutes, loosing her first major singles final. At 21 years old, Zheng became China’s youngest women’s player to reach a Grand Slam final. Li was 28 when she broke through at the 2011 Australian Open. Zheng was going through her press rounds last week following a third-round win over Wang Yafan when a funny thing happened. Actually, her childhood idol, Li Na, appeared — interrupting an English television interview. China’s most accomplished player whacked the backside of China’s current best, who was simultaneously stunned and delighted, and the two shared a hug and a few words. It was their first formal meeting. “That was feeling really special for me,” Zheng told reporters. “She said to me, ‘Don’t think too much, just keep simple.’ I think that’s right now what I need to do.” A decade ago, Li put the finishing flourish on a Hall of Fame career with a victory at the Australian Open, her second in a major after winning three years earlier at Roland Garros. Ten years and two days following that unprecedented win, China had another woman in the final. “She’s the first one who won the Slams,” Zheng said about Li. “She gives a lot of hope in that moment for young kids like me. That’s my dream since I was a kid.” Li finished her career with a record of nine titles, a No. 2 ranking in 2014 and more than US$16 million in prize money. Li was the first player of either gender from Asia to be ranked among the top 10 and win a major. Those victories helped to spark a remarkable movement back home that can be seen in today’s WTA Tour Top 100 rankings: That’s seven players — four of them aged 22 or less. In 2014, there were six Chinese women in the Top 100, but they were, on average, considerably older. The United States, with 16 women, has the most in today’s Top 100, followed by the Czech Republic with nine. China is next with seven — a sign that the massive country of nearly 1.4 billion is leveraging its many resources and starting to take professional tennis seriously. Before Li, basketball, soccer, table tennis and badminton were the top sports in China, with tennis almost an afterthought. But an International Tennis Federation study five years after her win in Melbourne calculated that 23% of the sport’s participants come from China — some 20 million. Zheng’s success will create another spike in interest. “I think generally, obviously China has really good tennis players in women and men,” Zheng said. “All of us are trying to develop and improve as best as we can. Some of us are young. We are trying to explore our game styles. Right now, we are in a really good position for China tennis.”(SD-Agencies) | 