“It’s a little bit too exciting.”
NEW YORK—Shuai Peng had to turn away from the on-court interviewer. He had just reminded her that, after 37 tries, she had reached her first Grand Slam semifinal. When she turned around again, there were tears in her eyes. We knew then that Peng wasn't going to react to these situations quite like her countrywoman Li Na. Where Li is always dryly funny, Peng was sincere and emotional. She was almost whispering.
Which may have come as a surprise to anyone who has been following her lethal progress for the last nine days at the U.S. Open. The 28-year-old Peng, a pro since 2001, has been as dominant as anyone in either draw here. She hasn’t lost more than four games in any of the 10 sets she’s played, and she’s knocked off two seeds, Agnieszka Radwanska and Lucie Safarova. Peng has done it by attacking and going after the ball relentlessly. She uses two hands on both sides, which gives her style a simple, but not brutal, sense of efficiency and positive energy, and allows her to create extreme cross-court angles.
“Maybe before in matches I was like tight or nervous, afraid to play,” Peng explained when asked why she was having this success now. “But for this time, this moment, I feel myself was quite OK.”
Peng answered the expected questions about playing in the shadows of Li, about resolving an old dispute with the Chinese government over the direction of her career, and about the moments she almost quit the game in the past—something Li has talked about numerous times as well.
Peng didn’t talk specifically about how Li, a two-time Grand Slam champion, had inspired her, but tennis is filled with examples like this one—of indirect, maybe unconscious, inspiration. It’s happened in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain. Someone sees a player do something, and starts to think it’s not impossible for them to do it, too.
Now the U.S. men just need someone like that.