Qinwen Zheng pulled off an absolutely stunning tweener during her Doha match against Maria Sakkari. She serving at 2-2 in the second set, Zheng pulled off what some believe to be an early candidate for shot of the year on the WTA Tour.
Tweener 🤠QWEENER! #QatarTennis pic.twitter.com/5utKakfFiv — wta (@WTA) February 14, 2023
Zheng won the second set to send the match to a decider, but fell short in his attempt to create a comeback.
In the end, fifth-seeded Sakkari won 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
How did Sakkari beat Zheng?
Sakkari had a great start to the match, breaking Zheng in the first game of the match. In the fifth game, Sakkari broke Zheng again to open a 4-1 lead and go up by double break.
Trailing 5-1 in the first set, Sakkari had her first set point on Zheng’s serve, but the Chinese saved it to cut the deficit to 5-2. Sakkari may not have realized his first set point in the seventh game, but she routinely served for the first set in the following game.
After easily winning the first set, Sakkari also earned the first break of the second set in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Down a set and a break, Zheng began to play much better as she responded with back-to-back breaks in the fourth and sixth games to win four games in a row and take a 5-2 set lead..
In the ninth game, Zheng converted her first set point to send the match to a decider. At the start of the third set, Zheng saved two consecutive break points in the second game to tie the third set at one game apiece. Zheng saved two break points in the second game, but was unable to make the same two games later than Sakkari broke the Chinese in the fourth game to open a 3-1 lead.
In the fifth game, Zheng had two break chances but failed to convert as Sakkari took a 4-1 lead. Sakkari then held serve for the remainder of the match to complete a three-set victory.. It was the second meeting between the two as Sakkari now leads their head to head 2-0.
