Aryna Sabalenka, the 25-year-old Belarusian was serving for the match in the women’s singles final of the Australian Open, up 5-2 in the second set of a contest that seemingly passed in an instant. As in most of the match, the final game was going Sabalenka’s way. Leading 40-0, the defending champion had three match points. She was ready to win. “Jiayou,” one fan shouted, the ubiquitous cry of support from Chinese sports fans. “Jiayou,” another echoed. They were there for Zheng Qinwen, who would move into the world top 10 for the first time after this tournament. And the 21-year-old, who rolled through the draw without facing another seed, appeared to lift. One match point saved. Then a second. And a third. Then, for the first time, a show of frustration from Sabalenka. Close to 15,000 ticket holders had paid their money, and finally they found value in their entertainment. This was as much of a contest as they had seen all night. On the players duelled, and Zheng wasn’t going away. Sabalenka faulted, and rolled her eyes. Two points later she flung a ball away in frustration. How much longer did she have to be here? For the spectators present, and the millions watching on television, a little longer would have been nice. The crowd regularly gasped at the ferocity of the groundstrokes exchanged. Although Zheng was clearly second best – she was broken in her first service game in each set – the Chinese player hit more winners than Sabalenka, and was only really let down by her second serve. Zheng was trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo during Saturday's final, with a post about her performance being viewed over 100 million times and people calling her the "hope for Chinese tennis". On Sunday, another Weibo topic, viewed over 300 million times, argued that the 21-year-old, affectionately known as “Queen Wen,” was too tenacious to allow losing her first grand-slam final to hinder her progress. It referenced Li Na, China's sole grand-slam singles title winner. Li had lost her own first grand-slam final, also in Australia, in 2011 before triumphing at the French Open a little over four months later. She lost another Australian Open final in 2013 before finally prevailing there the following year to finish with two major crowns. Zheng was the first player in four decades to advance through six rounds without playing anyone ranked in the top 50 — and was only the third in the Open era to reach a major final without facing a seeded player.Zheng's push to the final was two rounds better than her previous best run to the quarterfinals in New York last September. But the step up against No. 2-ranked Sabalenka proved too much. As one of the biggest serves on the women's tour, Zheng, who hit a tournament-leading 54 aces in Melbourne, had her lack of consistency under pressure exposed in the face of Sabalenka's near-flawless display of aggressive tennis, with the Belarusian power hitter dominating Zheng in first-serve percentage, first-serve points, break points won and total points won. The relentless weight of shots from her opponent and, more predominantly, of her own expectation, proved too much to handle for Zheng in the high-stakes matchup against Sabalenka, compared with their only previous meeting at last year's US Open quarterfinals. Coming up just one step short of the ultimate prize, Zheng seemed inconsolable after the final. She held back tears at the award ceremony while gazing at the trophy when Sabalenka lifted it for a second time in a row. She kept stressing how much better she could've done during the postmatch interviews, even with media all greeting her with words of encouragement. Nothing seemed enough to satisfy the ambitious competitor, who's already achieved many "firsts" for Chinese tennis over the past two weeks Down Under. “I didn’t perform my best. That’s really pity for me, because I really want to show better than that,” Zheng said. "I think I ca