It has been a long wait, but Chinese tennis finally came of age yesterday.
Li Na’s upset victory over Venus Williams at the Australian Open coupled with Zheng Jie’s stunning run gave the world’s most populous nation two players in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
It has sparked huge interest in China with national broadcaster CCTV, newspapers and Web sites giving their exploits blanket coverage.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“More history beckons for Chinese tennis,” screamed the Global Times, a headline emulated across the Chinese media.
This is reflected by the number of Chinese journalists in Australia to cover the tennis.
They are usually outnumbered by their Japanese colleagues but this year at least a dozen Chinese media are at Melbourne Park — far more than usual.
Li and Zheng have been predicting great things for some time but it is only since they left China’s state sports system to manage their own careers that the pieces have started to fall into place.
In December 2008, the nation’s top four women’s players — Li, Zheng, Peng Shuai and Yan Zi — became the first Chinese athletes to be granted unprecedented freedom in managing their careers.
It has meant they can select their own schedules, coaches and back-up teams, and also not have to hand over a significant portion of their prize money to the Chinese Tennis Association.
The move initially raised doubts about whether the players would survive on the WTA tour, but Li and Zheng, in particular, have thrived.
Li’s come-from-behind 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 upset of Williams is expected to propel her into the world’s top 10 — the first time a Chinese player has made the grade.
TOP 20
Zheng is forecast to move to 20 in the world after her 6-1, 6-3 quarter-final demolition of Russian Maria Kirilenko.
“For Zheng Jie, for me, for my country and my fans, it is a good thing,” said Li, whose bubbly personality and improved English has won over fans. “Tennis in China right now is getting bigger and bigger. We have three or four juniors playing here. We have many good players, but right now [for them] it’s step by step. They have to play small tournaments and make an impact.”
Zheng feels that with Li and her doing well and high-profile tournaments like the China Open and Shanghai Masters now on the schedule, the growth of the Chinese game has only just started.
“I feel tennis is very quickly going up [in popularity] in China,” she said. “You can see a lot of the newspapers coming here from China.”
“I think it [started to become popular] from 2004, Li Ting and Tian Tian won the gold medal from the Olympic Games,” she added.
Li and Tian’s Olympic medal was certainly a breakthrough, but so was Zheng and Yan’s Grand Slam doubles title at the 2006 Australian Open, and her run to the Wimbledon semis in 2008.
GROWING INFLUENCE
The growing profile of the game has already trickled down to children in China with many parents now encouraging their kids to play tennis rather than other sports.
“Table tennis and badminton are still the most popular but more mums and dads are taking their children to tennis clubs now,” Yan said.
Yet despite Chinese women doing well, men have still not made any impact.
“Maybe men need to work harder,” Zheng said.
They may also need to break free from the state system, which remains largely modeled on the old communist structure where children are identified for a certain sport, then funneled into government programs.
The model has certainly been successful, with China topping the gold medal count at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but has drawn criticism from some for focusing on results rather than the welfare of athletes.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
Ollie Watkins’ second-half header on Thursday gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Lille OSC in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie. Just past the hour mark, Ezri Konsa sent a deep pass that Emi Buendia headed to Watkins in the home team’s box. The England forward noticed goalkeeper Berke Ozer was off his line before sending a looping header over him and into the net. Minutes later, Watkins wasted a chance to double the advantage when he failed to score in a one-on-one with the ’keeper. Nottingham Forest were stunned 1-0 by Danish club Midtjylland, with substitute Cho
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS