Martina Navratilova calls for more slice backhands after Zheng Qinwen posts “mystifying” Australian Open loss

The Tennis Channel Live panel had one word to describe Zheng Qinwen’s second-round defeat to Laura Siegemund at the Australian Open result: mystifying.

“This is a player who won Olympic gold, reached the finals last year,” argued Jon Wertheim. “That doesn’t mean she’s winning the title, but to go out to a player who is almost 37 years old?”

Siegemund, an experienced veteran ranked No. 97 but armed with years of doubles success, unleashed maddening levels of variety on John Cain Arena, flummoxing the No. 5 seed into a 7-6 (3), 6-3 defeat.

“If you look at the players ranked in the Top 100 or 150 in women’s tennis, there are very few players that go to a slice anymore,” noted former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. “One of the reasons Ash Barty was so successful was she was a great player but in her era, there weren’t many players used to having to handle them.

“Siegemund is a master of it. She hits drop shots, she hits slices, she hits moonballs. All she does is give her opponent absolutely zero rhythm. For Qinwen, she just didn’t have her A game, and she couldn’t figure out a way to work herself into the match by getting any rhythm. And that’s a big credit to Siegemund, whose whole purpose out there is to not allow opponents to play well. She did that perfectly.”

For her part Zheng, who was in Melbourne without coach Pere Riba due to a hip surgery, may have solved the mystery on her own, admitting being less than 100% to start the season on account of an injury of her own.

“I got some small issues after the WTA Finals,” Zheng said in her post-match press conference.

“This year there was no chance for me to play tournament before Australian Open because there's some issues in my body didn't solve yet.”

Already lacking match fitness due to her late start to the season, Zheng couldn’t have drawn a less comfortable opponent.

“Zheng is also one of those players who is a big power hitter: she likes to have her time out there, play at her own rhythm,” said Prakash Amritraj. “Something that Siegemund is very good at doing, which we saw at United Cup, is she’s a master on the doubles court. She has no problem cutting off angles at the net.

“When you’re able to attack the net up there, shorten the points, all of the sudden the ball’s coming back quicker and you feel a little rushed. She’s able to cut off the court a little bit and I think that was another element that threw Zheng off on an already off day.”

Since Barty retired at world No. 1 in 2022, the top of the women’s game has been dominated by no-nonsense hitters led by current No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka who, despite working on an all-court game, is still at her most comfortable making big cuts at the ball.

“The question begs then: if the women really do not know how to play against the slice, why don’t more women develop a better slice backhand?” asked Martina Navratilova, herself a master of variety when she led the tour in the 1980s. “It’s mystifying to me.”