Zheng Qinwen: Learning to calm down is the most profound lesson I learned from defeat

China's Zheng Qinwen, who lost to Sabalenka in two sets in the quarterfinals of the 2025 French Open, said in her post-match interview that the loss was due to a lack of good mentality, and that she would learn valuable lessons from this defeat.

Reflecting on the match performance after the match, Zheng Qinwen said: "Actually, I was in good shape at the beginning, [the loss] was more due to my own reasons, I gave her a lot of unforced errors when I was ahead, including a few double faults at the more critical moments. I didn't handle the pressure very well and that was the only point I didn't get right today. I could have won this fight, but I was probably too nervous to bring out my strengths. Actually, my tactical deployment was OK, but I didn't implement it from the beginning to the end. ”

Zheng Qinwen

Photo: Li Jianyi

Zheng Qinwen said that the most valuable lesson he learned in this defeat is to learn to calm down: "In the face of the tournament I particularly want to win, I still have to be more stable, play according to my own ideas, and don't care too much about the result." Maybe I did focus on the result today, especially when I was ahead, but whether I was ahead or behind, I had to be a little bit calmer. Even if it's the quarterfinals of the French Open, no matter what the quarterfinals are, I should start with the whole thing, and that's the most profound lesson I learned today. ”

Zheng Qinwen expressed her feelings at the press conference after entering the quarterfinals of the women's singles with the song "Walking in the rain", she said that even if she made a breakthrough in this French Open, she still did not usher in a rainbow: "Even if I refreshed my best record (at the French Open), I am in a state of losing, not a state of 'rainbow', because I believe that I can do better." ”

For Zheng, it was a defeat that took time to digest, and she said: "Every time I lose a game that I really want to win, I need time to digest it. It may be swirling in my head, and I will ask myself why this is not done well, that is not done well, but it is all a process and I can learn a lot from this competition to make me stronger in terms of mentality in the future. ”