TOKYO — Zheng Qinwen reached the Tokyo semifinals despite admitting to struggling for motivation after winning Olympic gold and receiving a hero's welcome in her native China.

The top seed beat Canada's Leylah Fernandez, 6-0, 1-6, 6-3, to set up a final-four showdown with Russia's No. 6 seed Diana Shnaider.

Zheng became the first Chinese player to win Olympic singles tennis gold when she triumphed in Paris this summer.

She said her "life changed" as a result, and she "couldn't walk on the street" when she returned to play in China last month.

The 22-year-old is playing in a more sedate environment at the Pan Pacific Open in the Japanese capital and said it was "tough to find motivation."

"Especially after I finished in China because I [had] big expectations, a lot of stress, a lot of pressure there to play good in the Chinese events," she said.

"I already [made] one mistake after Australia, I lost motivation and lost a couple of matches I should not lose," she said, referring to reaching the Australian Open final in January.

"This time my team is trying to explain to me how important it is to keep the motivation up. If you are there [in] court, you need to fight 100 percent."

Zheng looked set for a comfortable evening's work when she took the first set without dropping a game against Fernandez.

She said that her concentration dropped in the second set, but she refocused to reach her sixth semifinal of a breakout year.

Zheng arrived in Tokyo after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Wuhan Open. Sabalenka also beat her in the final in Melbourne.

Before Wuhan, Zheng played at the China Open in Beijing, where she says the impact of her Olympic gold finally began to sink in.

Zheng will face Shnaider for the first time in Saturday's semifinals.

The Russian advanced with a walkover when Japanese quarterfinal opponent Sayaka Ishii withdrew injured.

Read The Rest at :