China’s No. 2 tennis player, Zheng Jie, has no plans to return to the state sports system and is happy with her first year of self-management despite the extra effort it entailed.
Along with compatriots Li Na, Yan Zi and Peng Shuai, the 26-year-old was this year freed from the obligation to be managed by the China Tennis Association (CTA), and pay 65 percent of her winnings for the privilege.
CTA chief Sun Jinfang said last month she thought Zheng was in decline and, like other “less talented and more hardworking” players, would be better off back inside the national system.
Zheng, who finished last season ranked 35th in the world with US$534,172 in winnings, said it was inevitable that the first year of managing herself would have been a learning experience.
“I am one of the first to try this and in the first year, I crossed the river feeling the stones,” Zheng told China Weekly magazine. “My obligation is to try my best to get good results. As to whether I am suitable for self-management, I am not sure what is the standard we judge by, ranking or prize money?”
RESULTS
Zheng was the first Chinese player to reach the last four of a Grand Slam when she lost in the semis at Wimbledon last year, and followed that up with a doubles bronze at the Beijing Olympics.
After six years as a professional having all her playing schedule, travel, equipment and coaching arranged and paid for by the CTA, Zheng must now sort it out for herself.
“It is even more tiring to train myself,” said the Sichuanese, who has chosen her husband as her coach. “In the past when I was young I was only told by the coach and leaders what to do. Now I am grown up, I choose my own tournaments. Now I think more about wanting to play well. I am playing for myself.”
LOSS OF SECURITY
Zheng said that although she was comfortable with the new deal, under which she pays just 8 percent of her winnings to the state system, there was a potential downside in the loss of security.
“Self management means great freedom as well as great risk,” she said. “For example, I made good money in 2009, but I have to maintain my performance every year to ensure my income. There will be a big loss if I drop in ranking or injured. In the past, such loss would be taken by the state system.”
With the average annual salary in cosmopolitan Beijing being just US$6,500, the US$187,000 Zheng pocketed after tax in the first six months of this year should alone keep her comfortable for the foreseeable future.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
RSS