“Obviously, she’s a better server than me, so I needed to make the points once the ball was in the rally,” explained Siegemund, who withstood 11 aces from Zheng to strike 29 winners off the ground. “I tried not to do too many fancy things but stick with my clear plan. I think I did a good job with that.
“It started to get very physical and I was thinking about my off-season, and why I’m doing all this running all the time. I told myself, ‘Now you have to run!’”
Having thwarted the projected quarterfinal between Zheng and top seed Aryna Sabalenka—a would-be rematch of the 2024 final—Siegemund awaits the winner of the second round between No. 27 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anastasia Potapova.
“I’m really competitive, just a grinder and a fighter, which is maybe not something that’s so popular with opponents. But that’s just me,” she said before saluting the crowd and reuniting with Zucca off court.
