Zheng Qinwen celebrates winning the women's singles semifinal tennis match against Iga Swiatek of Poland at the Paris Olympic Games on August 1, 2024. Photo: Li Hao/GT

An article titled "After winning the championship: Zheng Just wants to eat a bowl of hometown beef noodles" by Hubei Daily on Monday has garnered widespread attention, sparking a discussion about where renowned Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen is actually from.

Previous media reports held different opinions on where Zheng is from, ranging from Gucheng county in Xiangyang to Shiyan to Wuhan, all in Central China's Hubei Province. Public security authorities later confirmed that Zheng's place of origin is Gucheng county, while her place of birth is Shiyan, and her residence is in Wuhan.

According to local reports, Zheng's ancestral home is in Xiangyang, and her grandmother, Chen Yingtai, currently lives in Xiangzhou district, Xiangyang city. Zheng was born in Shiyan in 2002 and was taken to Xiangyang by her grandmother to attend kindergarten. Wherever she trained, the family would "settle" there. According to her grandmother, they have moved houses three or four times just in Wuhan. 

Zheng made history at this year's Olympics by becoming the first Asia-born player to claim gold in a singles tennis event on Saturday. It also marked China's first-ever gold medal in Olympic tennis singles, and the country's second in tennis overall after Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won the women's doubles title at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

The previous best result for a Chinese tennis player in Olympic singles was when two-time Grand Slam champion Li Na reached the semifinals. Coincidentally, Li is also from Hubei Province, and was born in Wuhan.

This is not the first time there has been debate about a Chinese athlete's hometown. There were similar discussions regarding Fan Zhendong, the renowned Chinese table tennis player who is also the gold medalist in men's singles table tennis at the Paris Olympics. He was congratulated by Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hunan after winning, as his parents are from Central China's Hunan Province, he was born in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, and he now competes for Shanghai.