French Open: tearful Zheng says only herself to blame over quarter-final loss to Sabalenka
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen made a series of unforced errors in her 7-6, 6-3 defeat to Aryna Sabalenka at Roland Garros
An emotional Zheng Qinwen said she had lost her French Open quarter-final against Aryna Sabalenka, rather than the world No 1 doing anything special to win it in straight sets.
Playing in her first tournament at Roland Garros since becoming Olympic champion last summer, Zheng went down 7-6, 6-3 in an error-strewn performance on Court Philippe Chatrier.
In her final post-match press conference of the event, a teary-eyed Zheng, who committed a total of 31 unforced errors, rued opening the door for the three-time grand slam winner to get back into the match when 4-2 up in the first set.
“Maybe during the match I should play a bit more aggressively, and I think in the first set I made a lot of easy mistakes,” Zheng said.
“I gave her easy chances, I think mostly I made the match lose … it’s in my hands, because I did some double faults in the first set when I’m leading with my service game.”
Zheng broke Sabalenka in the third game, and at 4-3 up, she just needed to hold her next two service games to guarantee the first set.