Zheng Qinwen’s Bizarre Warm-Up Stunner at Indian Wells Open!

Zheng Qinwen’s fourth round match against Marta Kostyuk at the Indian Wells Open didn’t go as smoothly as expected on Wednesday. During the warm-up, Kostyuk was practicing her volleys, but Zheng suddenly stopped and wanted to start serving, even though there was still time left. This surprised Kostyuk, leaving her confused and a bit rattled. In the end, Kostyuk lost the match with a score of 3-6, 2-6.

The strange warm-up moment happened with one minute and 40 seconds still on the clock. Zheng began sending lob shots to Kostyuk, but then abruptly decided to start serving instead. Kostyuk didn’t understand what was happening and asked the chair umpire for help. The umpire reset the warm-up clock and told Zheng to finish warming up.

Tennis legend Boris Becker was taken aback by the incident and simply tweeted, “What ?!?” in response to the news.

Now, Zheng is set to play against Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals. Swiatek is a two-time champion at Indian Wells and has been performing very well this tournament. She has only lost six games so far, beating tough players like Caroline Garcia, Dayana Yastremska, and Karolina Muchova.

Zheng is excited about reaching her first quarter-final this year. She hasn’t lost a single set during the tournament, having defeated Victoria Azarenka, Lulu Sun, and now Kostyuk. A big reason for her great performance is the return of her coach, Pere Riba, who just had hip surgery in November. He couldn’t train with her during recovery, but he was there when she won gold at the Paris Olympics last year and even beat Swiatek in the semi-finals back then. However, Swiatek still has a strong advantage over Zheng, leading their head-to-head record 6-1.