The No.12 seeded pair of Zi Yan and Jie Zheng?upset top seeds
Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur to deliver China its first ever
Grand Slam title with a 2-6 7-6 (9/7) 6-3 win in the women's
doubles final at Australian Open 2006 on Friday.
The Chinese pair fought off two match points in the second set
to force a tie-break and went on to break both Raymond and Stosur
twice each in the final set to seal a memorable come-from-behind
win.
The American and Australian combination had four more break
points than Yan and Zheng, but were only able to break serve the
same amount of times (six) as their opponents did.
The Grand Slam victory highlights the duo's rapid progress over
the last 12 months. They reached the semi-finals or better at seven
tour events last year, raising China's reputation as a tennis force
to be reckoned with following Sun Tiantian and Li Ting's historic
Olympic doubles gold at Athens in 2004.
(
australianopen.com?January
27, 2006)
