Australian Open: Zheng Qinwen sparks Chinese tennis hopes going into final

On paper, it sounds like a fairy tale penned by a Chinese tennis fan.

Almost exactly 10 years since Li Na won the Australian Open to become China's first Grand Slam champion a new, young Chinese player will be attempting to follow in her footsteps.

When Zheng Qinwen walks out onto centre court on Saturday, she will be just the second Chinese player in history to reach a major final.

Which means with her will be the hopes of more than a billion Chinese people and diaspora - just a little extra pressure on the 21-year-old, who only broke into the top 10 this week.

Many of those new fans have lapped up the narrative around the bright-eyed young star, who huddled around a television screen to watch Li Na, the woman who would become her hero, pick up her first trophy for China aged just eight.

"She put a little seed in my heart that I also wanted to do that and to be like her... and even better," Zheng said of Li's 2011 Roland Garros victory in a Tennis Channel interview last year.

Organisers at the Australian Open have also seized on that narrative, staging a surprise meeting at this year's tournament.

The Slam published the moment the retired champion sneaks up on Zheng during an interview. Zheng, caught in front of the cameras, is stunned: "Wow Li Na, big sister!" she gasps, hugging her hero.

"This is my first time speaking to you," she says, half to Li, half to the cameras. "She's so beautiful in reality!"

She may have only become a household name since securing her grand final place this week, but to those in the know, Zheng's been on the radar for a while now.

Last season she worked with top coach Wim Fissette, who this year returned to Naomi Osaka at which point Zheng reunited with her Spanish coach, Parc Reberre, who