Key events
Looks like there is lots of support for Zheng in Melbourne, big red flashes of the Chinese flag outside the arena.
John McEnroe has some advice.“Shes got to make the most of her movement, she’s a better mover than Sabalenka. She hits more aces than anyone, but more doubles, She needs to pull back that little bit, make sure the percentages are good on the serve because if Sabalenka starts looking at her second serve she’ll be [I miss the end of the sentence but it is something like licking her lips.”]
If Sabalenka wins today, she will be the first woman to regain the title in Melbourne since Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and 2013. But where once the pressure might have been overwhelming, she’s grown in maturity and experience over the last year.
“When you’re like third time in the finals, you’re, like, OK, it’s a final, it’s OK,” she said. “It’s just another match, and you’re able to separate yourself from that thing. Just focus on your game. That’s it, actually.
“I think I’m pretty calm inside like I am outside. I’m defending champion, but worst case, I’m, like, OK, I’m going to lose this tournament, and it’s less points to defend next year. Then that’s it.
“That’s kind of like helping me to just stay focused and just try your best in each match without thinking about defending something.”
The cameras have arrived at the Rod Laver Arena, and a quick peek behind the scenes shows Sabalenka stretching her Amazonian limbs and Zheng lifting weights. Here is our man on the scene, Tumaini Carayol,’s profile of Zheng.
This was the sweet moment earlier in the tournament when Zheng Qinwen met her heroine Li Na for the first time:
Preamble
Hello! Are you ready? After two weeks of intriguing tennis under the Melbourne sun, here we are. The women’s final between the reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka and Zheng Qinwen kicks off at 8.30GMT.
You probably pencilled in Sabalenka at the beginning of the tournament. And she’s played like a queen, not dropping a set, screaming those winners into the far corners, her mental strength now as reliable as her grunts of effort. She played three major finals in the last year – losing the US Open against Coco Gauff just a few months ago, incidentally beating Zheng in the quarter final on her way there.
Zheng, the number 12 seed, is very much the underdog, but she too has a dream – never underestimate a dream – and that’s to emulate her heroine Li Na, who was the last Chinese player to win a major in 2014 when she beat Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) to take the Australian Open title. Her path through this competition has been helped by the scything of the seeds early on, but her tennis has been classy, her forehand formidable, and her composure admirable. May the best woman win!
