*

Zheng loses in Wimbledon semis

Friday, 4th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

*
Serena Williams put an end to Zheng Jie's Wimbledon run Thursday, winning 6-2 and 7-6 (5). Serena had little trouble with Zheng in the first set, but the second was hard-fought championship tennis. In the last two games before the tie break, Zheng and Serena found themselves locked at deuce several times before Serena forced the tie break. Serena went up 3-0 in the tie break, but Zheng fought back to make it 5-5. Serving the ball and down 5-6, Zheng showed a small crack in her steely composure when she double faulted into the net, handing victory to Serena, who will face her sister Venus in the final Saturday.

When Zheng had the serve, she managed to keep Serena playing along the baseline for much of the time. But Serena punched through 14 aces, compared to none for Zheng.

As Zheng Jie leaves competition until August, here's a look at some of the better pieces that have been done on her over the past few days:

From Wimbledon.org, on why Zheng's success is not as much of a surprise as you might think: Zheng and the art of ankle maintenance

From the New York Times, on how Zheng's success makes a case against China's system of selecting athletes based on physiological formulas: Chinese Tennis No Longer Overlooks Zheng

From the LA Times: Zheng is fun to watch, but why?

Image: Wimbledon.org

Tags: tennis, Wimbledon, Zheng Jie

Comments

This blog item has no attached comments. Be the first! See below...

Comments form

If you'd like to use the comments form for registered users, please login.

If you'd like to register, please click here.