Olympic champ Zheng, Hong Kong's Haughey on strength, sacrifice and winning mentality

Zheng Qinwen celebrates after winning against Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova during their women's singles semi-final tennis match at the WTA Finals Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nov. 8. AFP-Yonhap

 

It is not often three Olympic gold medalists and Hong Kong's greatest athlete are gathered in a room together to discuss mental strength, sacrifice and what it takes to win, so when the opportunity arises you listen.

The first day of the Post's Family Business Summit closed with a panel featuring China tennis star Zheng Qinwen and Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey chatting with moderator Joe Tsai about their journeys to the pinnacle of their respective sports.

And just for good measure, Chinese twins Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi, who won gold in both the duet and teams events in artistic swimming in Paris, were in Saturday's audience at the closed-door event at the Island Shangri-La.

That all are driven to succeed is a given, but what motivates them is as different as the "number of forehand techniques" Zheng said there were on the WTA Tour.

As an 11-year-old, she could not understand why others did not see her future as a tennis great as clearly as she did.

"Tennis was my dream, because since I was 10 years old I knew my final dream was to be in a [grand] slam, to try and reach as far as I can," the world No 5 said. "And I was thinking sometimes, those coaches who don't see my potential, are they blind or what?"

That single-mindedness has propelled the 22-year-old to become the first woman from Asia to win Olympic gold, and the first player from China to make the knockout stages of the WTA Finals since Li Na in 2013, as well as taking her to her first grand slam final.

It has required sacrifice, though. In a solitary sport, where you have to win five matches a week to win a tournament, friends have not been easy to come by for someone so focused on success.

"When I was a junior, if I beat my friends, they would get upset with me, because the one who lost, of course, you feel sad," Zheng said. "So, little by little, I realized you can never make friends on tour."

On the flip side, a six-year-old Haughey considered quitting many times because she "really hated swimming because it was very boring", mainly because "you're just counting tiles every day and you can't talk to anyone. It was just you and the bottom of the pool."

Friends, some of whom remain to this day, were initially her reason to continue before at around age 13, Haughey, who has four Olympic medals to her name, realized "actually, I'm not bad at this."

"I wasn't the best, or, you know, the best in the world, or whatever, at that point, but I think the other coaches could see the potential in me," she said. "But at that time, at that age, all you wanted to do is hang out with your friends."

At age 27, the attitude is different now. Training is fun, teammates are like family and the challenge is not to beat the other seven people in the pool, but rather to be faster than the day before.

"Where .01 of a second makes such a big difference, I really try to think about every single area that I can find ways to improve," Haughey said.

"So not just in my technique, but what I'm doing out of the pool, what I'm doing in the gym, my recovery, my sleep, my nutrition, everything. Now that's fascinating."

Zheng Qinwen serves against U.S.' Coco Gauff during their women's singles final tennis match at the WTA Finals Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 8. AFP-Yonhap

Things are different for Zheng. Growing up she wanted the serve of Roger Federer, the mentality of Raphael Nadal and the forehand of Novak Djokovic, until she realized that was impossible.

"In tennis, we don't have to do it perfectly every day," Zheng said. "We just have to find a way to beat the opponent."

The off-season will give Zheng a chance to figure out how to beat her Australian Open final conqueror Aryna Sabalenka, an opponent she has yet to get the better of.

"Before, I didn't watch too many of her matches, but right now, I like to watch every single one, because I am so obsessed to find a way how to beat her, because I feel it's kind of the most challenging for me," Zheng said.

Data is playing an increasing role in all sport, and from January coaching during matches will be allowed. While pointing to the importance that data played in helping Jannik Sinner get the better of Carlos Alcaraz, who the Italian struggled to beat on the junior circuit, Zheng said it was not the entire answer.

"I always talk about data with my coach, and then he told me, just follow your heart when you are on the tennis court," she said. "Data is just one of the things to help you, but everything you do is where you put your hard work on in the training."

The psychologists in the room, of which Haughey is very much one, would have had a field day with some of the answers to the questions that came from Tsai, who as well as owning the Brooklyn Nets is co-founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, and chairman of the Post, which Alibaba owns.

Zheng was comfortable enough to acknowledge that becoming more social could improve her performance on the court, where at the top level "everything is about the mental."

Having already discussed the difference between East and West when it came to training and work ethic, the pair opened up on the difficulty of dating, and Zheng, who spends 35 weeks of the year on the road, said tennis always came first. For now at least.

Haughey, who has been single for a few years, said if someone were to come into her life "they have to make my life even better, and it's already great right now, so I think it really takes someone special to do that."

Read the full story at SCMP.