In a country of 1.4 billion people that previously had no meaningful record in tennis, Li was a trailblazer, an example to follow where previously there were none. Her success revolutionised the sport in China, which according to the International Tennis Federation now has more tennis players than any other nation in the world. 

But while Li has undeniably been an inspiration, she is also a tough act to follow. In Melbourne, Zheng was unable to mark the 10th anniversary of her fellow countrywoman’s Australian Open success with another Chinese victory, losing the final to Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. But the 21-year-old has given everything in pursuit of her dream, leaving her home in Shiyan at the age of seven to train in Wuhan, some 275 miles away, and immediately her thoughts turned to improving her game, to taking the final step. 

“I just hope next time I can come back as a better tennis player,” said Zheng.

On Saturday afternoon, she did just that. At Roland Garros, the scene of Li’s first major title in 2011, Zheng emerged from the shadow of her celebrated predecessor by defeating Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3, in the process becoming the first Chinese player to win an Olympic gold medal in singles. She did it by meeting the moment; by channelling the disappointment she felt in Australia, where she felt the weight of the occasion all too keenly; by ensuring that, this time, she remained focused and composed.

“I had a lot of nerves [in the Australian Open final,” said Zheng. “My legs were super heavy. I couldn’t perform 50% of my level. But this final was different.

“It’s because of [my] calmness and patience that I was able to get the victory.”

As that analysis might suggest, the match was not a classic. For Vekic, playing the biggest match of her career barely three weeks after contesting what was previously the biggest match of her career, a heart-breaking defeat to Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon semi-finals, inspiration came in fits and starts. A slow start from the 28-year-old set the tone, Vekic surrendering her opening service game with a string of unforced errors, and for the remainder of the afternoon she would be playing catch-up. 

Struggling to find her range in conditions that were breezier than they have been of late in the French capital, Vekic was unable to land her booming forehand with the consistency required to halt Zheng’s march. The baseline exchanges were tightly contested, but too often they went in Zheng’s favour, denying Vekic the chance to build scoreboard pressure. The quality of the world No 7’s defensive play did not help the Croatian’s cause, with Vekic obliged to win each point several times over in the face of Zheng’s tireless retrieving. Inevitably, Vekic was forced to overpress. She would end the afternoon with 31 unforced errors to just 13 winners, a statistic that told its own story. 

Yet for all her evident frustration, it has been a momentous summer for Vekic. Her run to the gold medal match, on a surface where she has never reached a tour-level final – and hard on the heels of a physically and emotionally draining run to a first grand slam semi-final – came only weeks after she considered quitting the game altogether. That nadir came before the French Open, when she felt she was giving everything without getting the results she craved. After defeating second seed Coco Gauff in straight sets, saving a match point in a late-night thriller against Marta Kostyuk, and laying her semi-final demons to rest with an emphatic win over Anna Karolina Scmiedlova, Vekic can have no complaints on that score now.

“After the Wimbledon semi-finals, I had so much pain everywhere that I was debating going to the Olympics, because I thought, ‘In these conditions, there’s no way I can win a medal,’” said Vekic. 

“I had pain in my arm, pain in my ankle. I was sick. Everything was happening all at once. When we came here, our flight was cancelled, and we arrived late. Everything was going wrong. When we had our first practice, I told my coach, ‘I am coughing so bad I can’t make two shots in a row.’ One week later, we have a medal, so it’s been absolutely incredible.”

Zheng too has overcome the odds, saving a match point against Emma Navarro, then battling back from 4-1 down in the decider in the quarter-finals to send Angelique Kerber into retirement. Her semi-final win over Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, where she recovered from 4-0 down in the second set, was her first in seven meetings with the Polish world No 1. If the belief she took from that win sustained her against Vekic, a gold medal will sustain her for a good while longer. 

“When I became the Olympic champion, I felt a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders,” said Zheng. “Mentally, I feel a lot lighter going forward. Finally, I am able to say to my family, to my father, ‘Come on, I just made history!’”

While a childhood dream has been realised, however, there remains more to do. Zheng may have eclipsed Li as an Olympian – the retired champion’s best result was a fourth-placed finish at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing – but now she must match her childhood idol on the grand slam stage. Now she is the player to emulate, the inspiration for the next generation of Chinese champions. 

“I have always been jealous of history-makers like Li Na,” said Zheng. “No matter what, she’s always the first, because she’s the first Asian player to win a grand slam. And I now become the first Asian player to win Olympic gold. I made history, as well. 

“However, I still have a long way to go, because winning a grand slam is always my dream.”

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A run to the last 16 of January’s Australian Open held promise of better to come, and when the 28-year-old claimed a historic triumph in Dubai the following month, becoming only the third Italian woman to win a WTA 1000 title, the feeling was that she had delivered. In fact, she was barely getting started.

Six weeks ago, Paolini embarked on an extraordinary run to the final of the French Open, and on Thursday she reached the final of a second straight major, prevailing in a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting battle with Donna Vekic to win the longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon history. 

By the time Vekic drilled a final forehand wide to confirm Paolini’s 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) victory, two hours and 51 minutes had elapsed, eclipsing Serena Williams’s epic 2009 win over Elena Dementieva by three minutes. In a measure of the magnitude of her summer, Paolini also became the first woman to reach the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season since Williams in 2016. In half a season, she has gone from a grand slam also-ran to being mentioned in the same breath as arguably the greatest female player in history; like her latest success, it has been the wildest of rides.

“It was really tough today, she played unbelievable,” said the seventh-seeded Paolini on court afterwards. “She was hitting winners everywhere. I was a little bit struggling at the beginning, but I was just repeating to myself to fight [for] every ball and to improve a little bit. 

“I am so happy with this win. This match, I will remember forever.”

It was, indeed, unforgettable, an occasion of unrelenting drama and emotion and no little quality. Yet Vekic, who cut a distraught figure down the stretch, will not be able to banish it from her memory soon enough. 

If major trophies were handed out on the strength of perseverance alone, the unseeded Croatian would have been a multiple grand slam champion by now. As it is, she has taken the long road, one punctuated by injuries, knee surgery and thoughts of retirement. This was her first major semi-final – she has previously reached the last eight at the Australian and US Open, achieving a career-high ranking of No 19 – and while she is projected to rise from her current position of 37 to the cusp of the top 20 next week, that will be scant consolation. 

Vekic dominated the first set, barely losing a point behind her first serve while feasting on the 5ft 4in Paolini’s delivery. Returning from inside the baseline and going hell-for-leather with her booming forehand, Vekic looked nigh-on unplayable. 

But history has shown otherwise, and as Paolini improved her serving statistics and started to show greater variety, throwing in drop shots, approaching the net and switching to a deeper return position, so she began to make inroads. It made for a far more competitive second set, the pair matching each other step for step until the 10th game, where the cumulative pressure told on the Croatian. Serving to stay in the set, Vekic left the door ajar with a double fault, and Paolini gratefully forced it open.

On we went to a deciding set, one Vekic looked likely to control when she consolidated an early break to lead 3-1. But Paolini was far from done. She hit back to level, promptly dropped serve again as Vekic jumped on an inviting 66mph second serve, and then took full advantage as the Croatian, feeling the toll of going the distance for the fifth time in six matches, began to stretch out her legs and ice her forearm. 

From there, it became a battle of Vekic’s brave shot-making and Paolini’s tenacity and resilience. The Italian kept pressing, moving her opponent deep into the corners, forever making one more ball. As Vekic prepared to serve to stay in the match, she was visibly distressed. She nonetheless steeled herself to hold with some brilliant serving, saving a match point in the process, and at 5-5 she twice held a break point that would have left her serving for the match. 

Again, Paolini held on. As Vekic trudged disconsolately back to her chair, she dissolved into tears. Up in the players’ box, Pam Shriver, her coach, yelled encouragement. Brankica Vekic, her mother, wore a haunted expression. Somehow, though, Vekic rallied to hold again, winning a tense 17-shot rally to fend off a second match point. A fraught 10-point tiebreak followed, but it was not be for Vekic.

“Tough, tough match,” she later reflected, struggling to maintain her composure as she faced the media. “I believed that I could win until the end. She played some amazing tennis and all congrats to her, she definitely deserved it.

“I thought I was going to die in the third set, I had so much pain in my arm, my leg. So it was not easy out there, but I will recover.

“I was more crying because I had so much pain that I didn’t know how I could keep playing.”

Paolini, meanwhile, stands on the brink of history for the second time in little more than a month. In Saturday’s final, she will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, who later fought back from a set down to stun Elena Rybakina, the former champion and title favourite, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. 

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Vekic fought back from a set and a break down to claim her sixth victory in eight meetings with Sabalenka, prevailing 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-0 to hand the world No 2 her second defeat of the season.

“At all times, I didn’t give up,” said Vekic, the world No 31, after avenging her defeat to Sabalenka in last year’s Australian Open quarter-finals. “I didn’t stop believing that I can win. I just kept fighting. 

“To be honest, I didn’t have big expectations coming to Dubai. I told my coach that I’m taking this week as half holidays. I can tell you I spent more time on the beach than on the court. Maybe that’s a good way going forward.”

Indeed, Vekic quipped in her on-court interview that she was “on the beach already” after Sabalenka snatched a break at the beginning of the second set. Yet she had competed relentlessly up to that point, breaking the Belarusian as she served for the opening set before saving three consecutive set points on her own serve to force a tiebreak, and her determination never wavered.

“[In the] second set, I was just trying to go for it a bit more, because she was definitely outpowering me in the important points in the first set,” said Vekic, who defeated Sabalenka at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. “I was like, ‘OK, if you want to have a chance of winning, you have to go for it more.’”

The 27-year-old achieved that goal with aplomb, breaking seven times and hammering an impressive 42 winners, including 14 aces. Vekic also made a dozen fewer unforced errors than Sabalenka, for whom old demons resurfaced in the form of eight double faults – half of which came in the deciding set, where her game and composure began to unravel.

Sabalenka’s earliest defeat at a WTA 1000 event since last May’s Italian Open was a chastening affair. Accustomed to controlling her own fate with the force and aggression of her shot-making, the second seed had matters taken out of her hands by one of the few players equipped with the firepower to match her blow for damaging blow. 

“I feel like the conditions here don’t fit me well at all,” said Sabalenka, who has never advanced beyond the last eight at the tournament and, like Vekic, struggled at times in the swirling wind. 

“It’s really tricky for me to compete here in Dubai. Really tricky court for me.  

“I would say that the whole match I was leading, I was winning. I won the first set. I was up with a break. [But] I didn’t feel like I was up. The level was so bad today from me. 

“At the end she stepped in and started playing way [more] aggressively, because she saw that I’m not playing my best at all. I think that’s why she came back from that score that easily, because it was just like, who’s more lucky, you know? The level wasn’t there at all.”

Ironically, for all Vekic’s willingness to fight fire with fire, the match turned on an outstanding piece of defensive play from the Croatian. A point away from falling a double break behind in the second set, she scrambled wide to retrieve a forehand before rapidly retracing her steps as Sabalenka sent a booming backhand approach into the opposite corner. At full stretch, Vekic manufactured a floating slice that the Belarusian allowed to drift past her, confident the ball would fly long. 

To Sabalenka’s evident dismay, it landed plum on the baseline. The Belarusian would win only one more game.

“I think I got a bit lucky with that slice passing shot,” said Vekic. “That’s tennis, things can turn around in one point. At all times I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop believing that I can win. I just kept fighting.”

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