Zheng Qinwen is focused on sponsorship and commercial partnerships in China but would consider US approach
Zheng Qinwen says that she will not look to expand her sponsorship and commercial partnerships beyond China as she feels this will ensure that she remains focused on her tennis career.
She is now the face of women’s tennis in China following her gold medal win in Paris and will have plenty of opportunities to strike up new brand partnerships in her home nation.
Zheng will spend most of the year outside of China owing to her WTA Tour commitments and feels that keeping her off court commitments confined to her base will help her keep her tennis top priority.
She said that she relies on her manager to communicate with her coach regarding commitments outside of tennis to make sure she keeps her commercial partners happy but also ensures that her game doesn’t suffer.
“I think if you want to balance the time and the team has to work well, especially I think the manager has to communicate good with the head coach, because of course commercial is important, but at the end we are tennis player to perform as well on court. This our priority,” Zheng said in New York ahead of the US Open.
“You need to block some time for the commercial things. I think I will do it in China, because that’s going to be much easier for me instead of to do outside of China, yeah.”
Zheng admitted that she might consider a big commercial partnership with a US brand but believes that most would prefer to partner with American players.
“I don’t know. Because I thought the U.S. commercial, maybe they just support U.S. players,” Zheng said when asked about the potential of working with American companies.
“I mean, if I had a chance to work with U.S. commercial, I mean, at the end, my priority goes, is always performance well in tennis, but, I mean, if the opportunity come, I will trying to get, there is no specific, say, which commercial it is, because, you know, I just wants to be simple. If I have to do the commercial, I will do it, because it’s part of job.
“But where my passion is and where I want to put all my energy is on the tennis court.”
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The Australian Open finalist was eager to maintain her high level after her Olympic gold medal win, feeling that she didn’t keep her game up after her run in Melbourne.
“Well, I always say that, you know, after the Australian Open, of course it was a really good result for me, but I had a lot of ups and downs after Australia, because I say I lost some motivation, and I’m different in the practice,” Zheng said of the aftermath of the Australian Open final.
“And after I won the Olympic gold medal, the first thing I told to myself is I want to keep the motivation on. I don’t want to let myself slip again. I really want to improve one more time in my mental side. It means learning how to maintain the level when you become a champion and just to keep winning, winning, winning, instead of getting relaxed and letting yourself lose an easy match.”
Zheng is seeded No 7 for the US Open and faces American Amanda Anisimova in the first round on Monday.
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