Different pressures, similar triumphs for Hubert Hurkacz, Zheng Qinwen in Shanghai and Zhengzhou

For those who still miss the slam-bang men’s tennis of the 20th century, Sunday’s final between Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev in Shanghai was the throwback rock fight for you.

The Russian and the Pole battled all the way to 10-8 in a third-set tiebreak, but they finished in just two hours and six minutes. Together, they hit 34 aces and 86 winners, and won more than 75% of their first-serve points. The rallies were over so quickly there wasn’t much time for unforced errors; Rublev made eight, Hurkacz seven.

If a point wasn’t won on a serve itself, it was usually over by the first or second groundstroke.

The match was fast, but close. The two traded 6-3 sets, and then traded 12 straight holds, many of them at love, to reach the third-set tiebreak. There was one moment of danger, and it came for Rublev when he was serving down 4-5.

At deuce, a photographer in his line of vision moved during the rally. When the point ended, and Rublev had lost it, he stalked toward the guilty party, screaming bloody murder, and was handed a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. Now he had to turn around and save a match point. Somehow, he calmed down quickly enough to rescue it with an ace down the T.

In the end, though, it was Rublev who couldn’t stay calm enough in the decisive moments. Through the first seven points of the tiebreak, he looked to be the winner, as Hurkacz drilled a couple of regulation backhands into the net, and Rublev took a 5-2 lead. But two points from the title, nerves set in and affected his swing. Out of nowhere, Rublev shanked a routine backhand wide—he hadn’t hit the shot that badly all evening. Then he hit another, equally routine backhand into the net to make it 5-5.

Rublev did reach match point at 6-5, but Hurkacz wiped it away with an ace. The two went back and forth until Rublev served at 8-9, match point for Hurkacz. This time they rallied at length, moving each other from corner to corner. Usually, Rublev had the advantage from the baseline, but this time Hurkacz came up with the shot, and the surprise, of the day: A backhand that he rifled down the line, with too much pace and depth for Rublev to handle. Hurkacz had his second Masters 1000 title.

“Andrey was playing some really good tennis, and I knew I [had] to produce the shots,” Hurkacz said. “So I was just trying to stay out there and compete as hard as I could, and keep the positive self-talk.”

As for Rublev, he struggled at times to hold up his runner-up plate during the trophy ceremony. Even under his mat of hair, his disappointment was obvious. But he added 600 ranking points this week, cementing himself at No. 5 in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin. By the time he reached his press conference, he seemed to have found a little perspective.

“I felt that I’m doing everything right [in practice], I’m playing well, it’s just matter of time when I will be able to show this game on the tournament,” Rublev said. “Shanghai was the first tournament where I was able to show this kind of level in a tournament.”

But it’s Hurkacz who walks away with the big rankings prize: His 1000 points moved him from No. 16 to No. 11 in the race, and within 400 points of Holger Rune at No. 8. Still, like everyone else, he knows he’ll start all over again next week.

“Unfortunately, like in tennis, you win the tournament, you’re definitely so happy, you get the confidence, but the next week you're just flying to another place,” Hurkacz said. “You try to build a routine out there and just prepare as good as you can for your next match.”

It has been four years since the tours came to China, but the tennis fans in that country sound very much the same: When they show up, they show up loudly. Every drop shot, ace, forehand winner and smash—anything even remotely exciting—is enough to inspire a wave of "oohs" and "aahs" through the arena. It’s a reminder, for fans who may be a little more jaded, of how much natural theater the sport and its pros can conjure from one point to the next.

On Sunday, though, the spectators in Zhengzhou had a chance to do more than appreciate a well-turned shot. They had a chance to root for one of their own, Zheng Qinwen, as she sought her second, and biggest, career title.

Coming into this week, the 21-year-old hadn’t had quite the breakout season that many expected from her. She’d lost early at three of the Slams, failed to win a title, and went out in the first round at the WTA 1000 in Beijing last week. Worse, just when she seemed to have found a groove with an experienced coach, Wim Fissette, he dropped her to return to Naomi Osaka. Zheng didn’t try to hide her anger over the snub; she called Fissette’s decision “unethical” and said she wouldn’t forgive him.

All of those frustrations, though, only made her week in Zhengzhou that much sweeter and more satisfying. The unseeded Zheng beat No. 3 Maria Sakkari in the round of 16, and powered her way past Jasmine Paolini to set up a final with No. 7 Barbora Krejcikova.

“All the crowd yelling for me, they supported me in full, in that moment, the feeling was unexplainable.” Zheng Qinwen

Then, with a nearly full house cheering her on, Zheng froze. Up 2-0 in the first set, she started to spray the ball around the building and didn’t win another game in the opening set.

“It’s a lot of pressure, you could see in the match,” Zheng said of trying to meet the locals’ expectations. “In the first set, I was leading 2-0, and I lost six games in a row.”

As the match progressed, that pressure slowly turned from burden to motivation. In the second set, Zheng began to dictate with her serve and her flat, two-handed backhand. That led to a final-set dogfight. Both players’ levels rose as they traded ground strokes and service breaks. Krejcikova’s down the line backhand is one of the marvels of the WTA, but Zheng’s was just as good, as she shrugged off her nerves and got on the front foot in rallies. She closed convincingly, by breaking at 4-4, and holding at love for the title.

No Fissette, no problem.

“When I was on the court finishing the last point, I was feeling super happy,” said Zheng, who finished with 10 aces and 30 winners. “All the crowd yelling for me, they supported me in full, in that moment, the feeling was unexplainable.”

Whether she could explain it or not, Zheng got her breakout win, and a crash course in playing under pressure along with it. It’s a lesson she’ll surely use many more times in the future.