Li Na beats Venus to reach singles tennis semis
Friday, 15th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Another world-class tennis tournament, another semifinal appearance for a Chinese player. Li Na (李娜) pulled off a huge upset and kept China's tennis singles medal hopes alive when she beat Venus Williams (USA)—7-5, 7-5—Thursday night in Beijing. Li, ranked 42nd in the world, dropped the Wimbledon champion and 8th ranked player in two sets.
Olympic quarterfinalist Li Na
Li came back from a 4-1 deficit to force and win a tie break in the first set. She carried that momentum into the next set, going up 3-1. Venus fought back to take three sets in a row and a 4-3 lead, but couldn't hold on to her lead. The win puts Li into the semifinals, where she will face the winner of a match between Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) and Dinara Safina (Russia).
With her win at the 2006 Australian Open, Li became the first woman from China to win a WTA singles event. Since then, she has three third-place finishes in Grand Slam events.
Li is the last woman standing among China's four entries in the tournament. Zheng Jie (郑洁), hot off a run to the Wimbledon semifinals, lost in the third round of the singles tournament to Russia's Safina (6-4, 6-3), the sixth ranked player in the world.
Alize Cornet of France dispatched Peng Shuai (彭帅) in the second round, and Yan Zi (晏紫) was the first of the Chinese women to be knocked out, losing in the first round to Vera Zvonareva (Russia).
Zheng gets a chance to avenge her loss when she and Yan, face Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the doubles quarterfinal on Friday, August 15. The Chinese pair got there by beating a Swiss duo, 6-3; 7-6(2).
On the men's side, China has been much less competitive. Xu Xinyuan, Sun Peng and Zeng Shaoxuan all lost in short matches—55 minutes for Xu, 1 hour 6 minutes for Zeng and 1 hour and 7 minutes for Sun. Zeng and Xu also played doubles, losing in the first round.
Related: China's upset-minded tennis team gets its draws
Li Na image: 163.com
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Li Na, Olympics, Peng Shuai, tennis, Venus Williams, Yan Zi, Zheng Jie
China's upset-minded tennis team gets its draws
Thursday, 7th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
One of the last sports to determine its Olympic matchups, tennis finally held its draw Thursday night at the Swissotel in Beijing. China's best shot at a tennis medal is on the women's side where, despite lacking a player among the top 25 in the world, it has the maximum four players, all with the potential to pull off upsets.Zheng Jie (郑洁), the hottest name in Chinese tennis and the team's highest ranked player (38), will face Agnes Szavay (14, Hungary) in her first match. The two also played in the fourth round of Wimbledon earlier this year, with Zheng winning 6-3, 6-4.
Li Na 李娜 (43) plays Svetlana Kuznetsova (3, Russia); Peng Shuai 彭帅 (50) will face Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro (55); and Zheng's doubles partner Yan Zi 晏紫 (52) is matched up with Vera Zvonareva (11, Russia).
For highlights and interviews with these women, check out CST's tennis playlist on Youtube (below).
Zheng and Yan are a force in doubles, having won Wimbledon and The Australian Open in 2006. The pair open up against Daniela Hantuchova and Janette Husarova of Slovakia.
On the men's side, China's Sun Peng faces Fernando Gonzales of Chile. Yu Xinyuan, who got a spot in the tournament after Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany withdrew due to injury, will play Argentina's David Nalbandia.
Tennis play begins Sunday, August 10.
Related: China's Zheng making tennis history
Zheng's Wimbledon run continues
Zheng in Wimbledon quarterfinals (after Szavay match)
Zheng loses in Wimbledon semis
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Li Nan, Peng Shuai, Sun Peng, tennis, Xu Xinyuan, Yan Zi, Zheng Jie
China's Zheng Making Tennis History
Wednesday, 2nd July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Zheng, a Chengdu native, has said she will donate the portion of her winnings that does not go to the CTA (Chinese Tennis Association) to Sichuan earthquake relief efforts. Her prize money will be at least $390,000.
It's not surprising that she is playing this deep into the tournament. The surprise is that she's still alive in the singles draw. Zheng won doubles at Wimbledon and the Australian Open with her partner Yan Zi (晏紫) in 2006, but she's never gotten past the fourth round in a Grand Slam as a singles player.
"The CTA focuses on doubles. Anything that comes with singles is a bonus," Tom McCarthy, president of Beijing International Group (BIG), told China Sports Today. BIG is the sports marketing firm that represents Zheng and the CTA. "Playing singles was supposed to get her in shape for the Olympics," McCarthy said. She's getting in shape, alright, chasing down shots from players half a foot taller than her (Zhang is only 5-foot-4 1/2) and upsetting world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic (6-foot-2 inches tall), Agnes Szavay (seeded 15th) and Nicole Vaidisova (seeded 18th).
Zheng and Yan were knocked out of doubles contention Monday.
Zheng has made some adjustments to her serve, under the tutelage of husband Zhang Yu, who coaches in China's men's program. "She changed it to a style that's more similar to how the men serve," McCarthy says. "That's been one of the major factors in her wins."
With her size disadvantage, Zheng is physiologically unable to get the same power in her serve that six-footers can, but she consistently puts the ball right where she wants it, on the back line. With the grass courts at Wimbledon keeping the ball low, she is able to force her taller opponents to reach down for her groundstrokes and play along the baseline.
Throughout the tournament, Zheng has demonstrated great calm and composure. You won't see her throwing her racket in frustration, and her signature celebration is a restrained pump of her fist. But she has also shown herself to be a fighter, coming back against more athletic players. On Monday, she overcame a 4-1 deficit to win the second set and yesterday, she saved six break points in the first.
"She doesn't give an inch. Her mentality is very level but her heart is very big," McCarthy says. "Whenever she had a little gap there, and it looked like she was in trouble, she found a way to stay in it."
Zheng's surge comes at a time when the CTA is stepping up its promotion of the game on the mainland. It recently secured Mercedes as the sponsor for a yourth development program called "Swing for the Stars," with clinics for players under 13 years old in Beijing, Guangzhou, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Nanjing. Through the program, the CTA will select 10 kids to go to a camp at the United States Tennis Academy.
Wimbledon is getting good coverage in China, with games airing live not only via satellite on Star Sports and on cable's CCTV Golf and Tennis Channel, but also on local networks like Beijing's B-TV, Shanghai's SMG Sports and local stations in some provinces. Between the sets in China that will be tuned in to watch Zheng and the audience Serena will attract from all over the globe, there should be a lot of eyes on Zheng's next match. The two faced each other in 2004, with Serena winning in straight sets.
"With Serena, now you're talking apples and oranges with the rest of them," McCarthy says. "The power, speed and versatility of her game will be a real challenge. This is a 100-to-1 shot, not a 10-to-1 shot."
Images:
Wimbledon.org
Chinese Tennis Association
Tags: Chinese Tennis Association, tennis, Wimbledon, Yan Zi, Zheng Jie
Zheng Bounces French Open Champ from Wimbledon
Saturday, 28th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Zheng is from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and turns 25 next week. She won the Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles titles with Yan Zi (晏紫) in 2006. She has three WTA singles titles, winning at Hobart in 2005 and Estoril and Stockholm in 2006. The Serbian Ivanovic won the French Open earlier this month. She had a hard time in Wimbledon's second round, taking 3 1/2 hours to beat Natalie Dechy of France.
Zheng will face Hungary's Agnes Szavay, seeded 15th, in her next match. She is also playing in the ladies' doubles tournament with Yan. The pair are seeded ninth and won their first match against Arantxa Parra Santonia and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
China has two other ladies' singles players in the tournament. Peng Shuai (彭帅) faces Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in her third-round match. Yuan Meng (袁梦) lost in the first round to Dechy, Li Na lost in the second round to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Yan Zi lost in the first round to Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. No Chinese men are playing at Wimbledon.
Image: Wimbledon.com
Tags: Meng Yuan, Tennis, Wimbledon, Yan Zi, Zheng Jie