Rising star Zheng Qinwen is vowing to return to lift the Australian Open title and follow in the footsteps of Chinese great Li Na after falling short this year.
The 21-year-old was outclassed in Saturday night's final by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, unable to match the feats of her childhood hero Li, who won the Open in Melbourne 10 years ago.
Li also made the Australian Open final in 2011 and 2013 and claimed the 2011 French Open title.
With Li watching on at Rod Laver Arena, Zheng was disappointed she couldn't mount more of a challenge against a dominant Sabalenka, who triumphed 6-3 6-2.
"Congrats to Aryna to have such a wonderful match here," Zheng said.
"I didn't perform my best. That's a real pity for me, because I really want to show better than that."
She lamented an early blip, losing her opening serve, and was then unable to take advantage of three break points to put the set back on serve.
"I think in this match I'm start pretty slow," Zheng said.
"The difference is the beginning, I can't hold the service game. Then later on, when I got the chance to break her 40-love up and I'm not able to make it.
"You know, that little moment makes the match so different.
"She's a really aggressive player and if you let a chance go, it will happen like today."
Zheng's consolation is a rise from 15th in the rankings to world No.7, a career-high pay-day of $1.725 million and an army of new fans.
Reaching her first-ever grand slam final, topping her previous best of a quarter-final loss to Sabalenka at the US Open, Zheng said the Australian Open had been a tournament to remember.
She topped Melbourne Park's tally for aces, sending down 54 - exactly double the next best woman, which happened to be Sabalenka.
Zheng said she would reflect on her performance to try to do even better in the future.
"I really enjoyed to play in this Australian Open," she said.
"That was an amazing memory for me and I'm sure there's going to be more and better in the future.
"Maybe I have to work more on my tennis, also work more on my mental side, work more on myself to be able to through this moment.
"Because if you lose, there must be reason behind why you lose, and we have to try to figure out why.
"I think I can learn more with the loss today, and then I just hope next time I can come back as a better tennis player and come back stronger."
