Boris Becker was confused after Qinwen Zheng broke a tradition at Indian Wells (Image: GETTY)
weighed in after Qinwen Zheng allegedly refused to hit lobs for Marta Kostyuk to volley during the warm-up ahead of their showdown at Indian Wells. The umpire was forced to step in after Zheng broke the tradition just moments before the match was due to get underway.
Tennis players are typically given four minutes to knock up ahead of matches and follow a standard routine, where they rally, volley, overhead smash, serve and return. But Zheng appeared to grow tired of setting her opponent up for volleys on Wednesday as she halted the endeavour in an effort to start practising her serving. Chair umpire Tom Sweeney eventually had to agree to reset the warm-up clock to persuade Zheng to play ball.
Kostyuk’s reaction was caught by the television cameras as she rolled her eyes and looked around the court in confusion when Zheng stopped sending the ball over the net for her to hit.
And after a clip of the incident was shared to Becker simply exclaimed: “What?!?”
Zheng went on to dominate the Ukrainian in the match as she cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory to set-up a quarter-final tie with five-time Grand Slam champion .
Qinwen Zheng refused to hit lobs for Marta Kostyuk during their warm-up at Indian Wells (Image: GETTY)
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And turning her attention to her encounter with Swiatek, Zheng explained: “We will both give our best. She won like really easy, her first three matches here at Indian Wells. So she’s in good shape. Same as I [am]. We’re going to fight. And let’s see what happens in the next match.”
The last-eight clash will be a rematch of the Olympic Games semi-final, where on Paris clay after the Pole had won three French Open titles in a row.
But that was Zheng’s only career victory over Swiatek, with her opponent winning the other six matches the duo have played.
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Ahead of their latest encounter, Swiatek said: “I guess [against] Qinwen I need to learn from our last match and see also how she plays right now because it’s been a while since we played.”
Zheng has won five singles titles throughout her career but had failed to progress beyond the last 64 at Indian Wells ahead of this year’s tournament.
The 22-year-old has climbed the rankings in recent years and reached the final of the at the start of last year. She has also featured in the quarter-finals on two occasions.