Quantcast

Chinese player making waves at Wimbledon

Zheng JieChinese tennis player Zheng Jie is making history and showing some Olympic promise with her recent play at Wimbledon. First she shocked tournament top seed, world No. 1 and the sport's newest "It girl," Ana Ivanovic in straight sets in the third round. And yesterday, Zheng dispatched Hungary's Ana Szavay to become the second Chinese woman to make it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Zheng won in two sets, 6-3, 6-4, showing the same calm confidence she was praised for after her match with Ivanovic.

Zheng was again the unseeded underdog, this time facing the 15th seeded player. She notched only two aces to Szavay's five. But she was patient, precise and unflappable, coming back from a 4-1 deficit to win the second set. On the last point of the match, she volleyed her opponent deep into her forehand corner before laying a hard shot to Szavay's backhand side.

Zheng will play Nicole Vaidisova at 9:00 p.m. Shanghai time. CCTV's Golf and Tennis Channel is airing games on the mainland.

For more on Zheng and other Chinese sports news, go to China Sports Today.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Maggie Rauch in on July 1, 2008 2:56 PM

Comments [rss]

  • Dan Washburn

    Zheng Jie on to the semis. Impressive.

  • booggerg

    awesome! I love these chinese athletes just blowing up the status quo!



    I agree, it doesn't matter where you live, you can represent any country you want especially if you have the bloodline to back it up.

  • T

    If this is true, is she really an athlete for China now or not?



    Is Yao Ming an athlete for China? Yi Jianlian? They spend a lot of time in the US too.

  • Dextrum

    she has a great rack too.

  • Maggie Rauch

    There is no truth to those rumors. Zheng trains with the national team in China and has never spent significant time in the United States.



    But even if she did, it wouldn't affect her national team status. Maria Sharapova spends most of her time in the USA, and she'll be representing Russia. There's even a basketball player (Becky Hammond) who's more American than apple pie who will be playing for Russia. And then there's these guys Yao and Yi who spend a lot of time in Texas and Wisconsin...

  • hotshotdebut

    Having Green card doesn't make her American, which I think is obvious, so I think she is still for China.

  • tenforty

    It is strongly rumoured that Zheng Jie has a green card for America and spends a lot of her time there. If this is true, is she really an athlete for China now or not?



    Can someone verify?

blog comments powered by Disqus
Home

personals

Enter our FREE personals site!

send a tip

tips@shanghaiist.com

all our cities
one convenient app

available on the iPhone AppStore

about

advertising / arts/entertainment / calendar / contact / contribute / facebook / food/drink / jobs / mobile / news / other / personals / photos / popular / RSS / staff / twitter / videos write for us / weibo

contribute