Zheng Qinwen "I NEVER beat Coco Gauff before so..."

Alright, welcome everyone to the press conference. As always, we'll start with English questions. If you have a question, raise your hand, we'll give you a microphone. Xinwen, amazing match, you're into the final here. How does it feel? It feels great because it's my first WTA final and right now I'm in the finals. I mean, I can be a little bit proud of myself today. Alright, any questions? Raise your hand. Yeah, right here. Congratulations. There's potential for you to have a rematch, obviously, with Arena or potentially play against Coco. Your thoughts on the potential of either of those two matchups going into tomorrow? I think both of them, they are really aggressive players and they're always trying to attack when they can, especially Sabalenka. She wins the match by playing aggressive but also she lost the match by playing too aggressive and then Golf is the type of player, she stays more with the opponent and then she can reach the ball farther. Both of them, actually, I never beat them before, so it will be a great challenge for me tomorrow. You're the youngest player to get to the WTA finals in their first tournament since Petra Kvitova, 13 years ago. What do you think of that? I don't know what to say because I don't know this record. And, of course, before I come to WTA finals, my goal is just trying to play good every single match, try to get as more as I can because I know every player here is tough to beat. But I didn't know I'm the youngest. But maybe, you know, Golf, she will be in the final tomorrow and then she's going to break that record after a few hours. So, who knows? Yeah, it's just I'm trying to play tennis and you guys tell me what record I break and that's it. You've won 31 matches since Wimbledon, more than anyone else. Are there times on court when sometimes it doesn't seem real? No, I feel everything is real because I know after Wimbledon, I have a big struggle for a while because I know I didn't perform as well in French Open. I didn't perform as well in Wimbledon. I was really good, you know, to be in the final of Australia Open. But after Wimbledon, it seems like I'm far away with my target. And, you know, I think everything is for a reason. It's because I lose first round in Wimbledon and I had a great time to prepare clay court season and win Palermo. And then this helps me to get Olympic gold medals. And then I think Olympic Games is one of the most important tournament by far because I start to imagine that since 2022. And then after that, you know, even I won the champion of Olympic, I try to keep my mental stable, trying to don't get relaxed. And it seems like it's working and I still keep the motivations really high. Congratulations, Qinwen. How do you think that you are different as a person and a player today versus the Australian Open final? I think I'm more explosive compared to Australia Open final. You know, even I was in the final, but actually I never meet any seeded on the way. This is one of the tricky part because I don't know why in my draw they are not there. Yeah, I would say I move faster and my ball goes faster. My serve goes faster and my endurance, physical improve a lot. So I would just say every single shot I'm better than when I was in Australia Open. And do you know why? Are you lifting more weights? Is that how you're getting more power? Can you attribute that to anything? I didn't try to lift more weight, but it's true I'm trying to always improve on the physical part because I felt why those girls, they have such a large shoulder and me, I look so skinny on court. And I don't like that, you know, because when I was young, I always looked to Serena Williams. So I was reaching for that powerful, you know, explosive tennis. So I put a lot of effort on the physical. But in the same time, I put a lot of hours on the court to fix my game, to always finding more improvement. Congratulations. It's clear you're a fan favorite this week. So what would it mean to you to win in front of these fans? Well, it means something because, you know, in the same time you get the privilege, but it's a type of pressure if you don't deal good. Because, you know, I understand everything what the Chinese fans, they say on court. Sometimes it's bothering me, so I try to get away, try to let nothing affect me on court. And I really like to play in the atmosphere like this when all the fans is a lot of fired up. I feel that brings more energy for the tennis and I feel more explosive on court because I like those environment when everybody's there for the match. Doesn't matter who you support, but they are really into it, into the zone. One last one for me. You played Arena this week, but you've only played Coco once. It was on clay. Playing on hardcourt this week, what do you feel like your chances would be if you were to play her in the final potentially? It's tough to say. Because in a tennis match, a lot of things can happen. And last time I remember, the reason why I lost against her is because I'm out of strength in the second set and I feel I can't put any pressure in because I don't have more power anymore. That's why I'm trying to improve my physical part. But after half a year, I feel the situation is different. I got more endurance in my physical. It's going to be a different match, different surfaces. She's obviously such a good player, winning a slam at a young age. It's going to be a new challenge for me, but I'm really excited and really happy to face that. Are there times on court when sometimes it doesn't seem real? No, I feel everything is real. Because I know after Wimbledon, I had a big struggle for a while. Because I know I didn't perform as well in the French Open. I didn't perform as well in Wimbledon. I was really good to be in the final of the Australia Open. But after Wimbledon, it seems like I'm far away from my target. I think everything is for a reason. It's because I lost my first round in Wimbledon and I had a great time to prepare for the clay court season and win Palermo. This helped me to get Olympic gold medals. I think the Olympic Games is one of the most important tournaments by far. I started to imagine that since 2022. After that, even though I won the champion of the Olympics, I tried to keep my mental stable, trying not to get relaxed. It seems like it's working and I still keep my motivation really high.