Zheng Qinwen’s strange act during a pre-match warmup in Indian Wells seemingly left Boris Becker in disbelief and wondering what happened there.
On X, footage was posted of Marta Kostyuk hitting pre-match volleys at the net. But then, the Ukrainian abruptly stops at one point and looks at the chair umpire with a stunned face.
Apparently, Zheng decided she didn’t want to do that anymore and wanted to hit some serves instead. Chair umpire Thomas Sweeney intervened – and after resetting the clock from 1:40 to four minutes – the Chinese tennis star agreed to send more balls to Kostyuk so she could continue with her volleys.
It happened with 1:40 left on the warmup clock. You can see in the pic I posted the clock was reset to 4:00 because Sweeney paused it.
Here is the clip. Marta doing volleys and then they stop because Qinwen wanted to start serving. Then after negotiation they start again. pic.twitter.com/GfDVuEAwg8
— Owen (@kostekcanu) March 12, 2025
Reacting to the weird situation, former six-time Grand Slam champion Becker wrote: “What?!?”
What ?!? https://t.co/HFUDgDS4yP
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) March 12, 2025
Zheng routed Kostyuk
The incident may have stuck in the Ukrainian’s head for some time as she lost her serve a total of five times during the match and got ousted by the world No. 9.
Meanwhile, the 2024 Australian Open runner-up is no stranger to drawing ire from her colleagues.
En route to winning the Paris Olympics gold medal last summer, Zheng was brutally called out by Emma Navarro, who described the 22-year-old as “a cut-throat” and said she “did not respect her as a competitor.” After the Olympic final, Donna Vekic also wasn’t happy with the Chinese – didn’t reveal why exactly – but did say that there were “controversial” stories about her in the locker room.
In Indian Wells, Zheng revealed that there are two players with which she would be willing to form a friendship. Judging by what happened in her match against Kostyuk, it is safe to say that the Ukrainian isn’t one of those two players.
Tennis World USA