Zheng Qinwen battles past Samsonova to reach maiden French Open quarter-final
Olympic champion made to work by Russian Liudmila Samsonova in tense affair that stretches winning run at Roland Garros to 10 matches
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen continued her French Open campaign in battling fashion as the Chinese eighth seed overcame Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at Roland Garros on Sunday.
Zheng swapped a pair of breaks with her 19th-seeded opponent in the opening set and fought back from 4-2 down in the tiebreak to get her nose in front before allowing big-hitting Samsonova to hold in a tense first game of the second set.
The Russian broke to love in the next game and struck again later to draw level in the match, leaving Zheng with a big fight on her hands to reach her maiden Roland Garros quarter-final at the site of her Paris Games triumph last year.
But the 22-year-old showed the mettle of a gold medallist, breaking for a 4-2 lead before shrugging off a poor service game to get ahead 5-3 and then securing victory when Samsonova made an unforced error.
“Right now I feel incredible because I’ve been dreaming of reaching this stage, it did not happen in 2023 and 2024,” Zheng said. “I have no words to describe my emotions right now.
“The crowd helped me a lot, they gave me a lot of energy. I like to play in front of a lot of people. It gives me a lot of motivation. I hope I can stay longer in Roland Garros.