Zhu Zhenzhen aims for wheelchair tennis gold at 2024 Paris Paralympics

China's Zhu Zhenzhen has been making history since becoming a wheelchair tennis player. She's the country's first professional athlete in the sport, first participant in a Grand Slam tournament via world ranking points, first women's doubles runner-up at the Australian Open in 2023 and first singles runner-up at the French Open this past June.

Three years ago, Zhu finished fourth in the women's singles event at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Paralympics. Then she earned silver in both the singles and doubles events at the fourth Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, in 2023.

Zhu is preparing to participate in the wheelchair tennis competitions at the upcoming Paris Summer Paralympics that will begin on August 28, and hopes to achieve a new breakthrough by claiming a medal.

Zhu was disabled after suffering an osteomyelitis infection when she was two-years-old and it took her eight years to master playing tennis in a wheelchair.

She started to make her presence known by winning doubles and team golds at the eighth National Para Games of China in 2011. Five years later, Zhu reached the quarterfinals in both the singles and doubles events at the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics.

In October 2018, Zhu paired with Huang Huimin to win the women's doubles final at the Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, taking home the first gold in the event for China.

Since turning professional in 2018, Zhu has competed in 11 Grand Slam tournaments, overcoming various difficulties both on the court and in her life, and her latest target is to top the podium in Paris.

"Although I am currently ranked fifth in the world, which is a relatively high ranking, I still aspire to stand atop the podium representing China," Zhu told the China Media Group. "In fact, I have privately envisioned scenes of myself winning a Paralympic gold medal and the mere thought of it excites me."