China's Yan Zi and Zheng Jie reached their second Grand Slam
final of the year yesterday when they beat Zimbabwe's Cara Black
and Australian partner Rennae Stubbs 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) in the
Wimbledon semi-finals.
The Australian Open champions will face the Spanish/Argentinean
pairing of Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez?in the
final.
Zheng is also in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles later
Friday when she teams up with Max Mirnyi of Belarus to take on Bob
Bryan and Venus Williams of the US.
China has already enjoyed a breakthrough Wimbledon with Li Na
becoming the first Chinese player to make the quarter-finals of a
Grand Slam singles competition.
At the Athens Olympics in 2004, Li Ting and Sun Tiantian became
the first-ever Chinese tennis medallists, winning the gold in
women's doubles.
Zheng and Yan then became the first Chinese players to rank in
the top 10 for doubles. Zheng and Li Na also contested the first
all-Chinese singles final last month in Estoril, Portugal.
(China Daily July 8, 2006)