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.
GUNNING FOR A WIN: The victory sending Arsenal to the final for the first time in six years was cathartic for a team who had lost their previous four semi-finals Arsenal on Tuesday reached the League Cup final for the first time in eight years as Kai Havertz sealed a 1-0 win against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg. Mikel Arteta’s side had put themselves in pole position in the first leg and Havertz came off the bench to finish the 4-2 aggregate victory in the closing moments at the Emirates Stadium. It was a cathartic triumph for the Gunners, who had lost their previous four semi-finals in last year’s UEFA Champions League and League Cup, the 2022 League Cup and the 2021 UEFA Europa League. In their first final for six years,
DEADLINE DAY: Rennes’ Jacquet had been linked with a transfer to Chelsea earlier this month, but was reportedly put off the move due to the Blues’ bloated squad Liverpool on Monday won the race to sign Stade Rennais defender Jeremy Jacquet on the quiet final day of the English Premier League transfer window, while Crystal Palace swooped for Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Jorgen Strand Larsen despite the collapse of Jean-Philippe Mateta’s move to AC Milan. The Reds agreed a reported fee of up to ￡60 million (US$82 million) for the highly rated Jacquet. However, the 20-year-old will not join the Premier League champions until the summer despite Liverpool’s need for defensive reinforcements. Jacquet had been linked with a transfer to Chelsea earlier this month, but was reportedly put off
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
RSS