【2009.01.26 美联社】China Goes From Australian Open Gatecrasher to Game-Changer

rhapsody

http://www.masslive.com/sportsfl ... ml&storylist=tennis

1/26/2010, 12:33 p.m. EST
Dan Baynes
The Associated Press                

(AP) — c ()-2010, Bloomberg News

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 27-Seven years after a doubles team from their country showed up uninvited at the Australian Open, Chinese women are having unprecedented success in singles at the tennis season's opening Grand Slam.

Zheng Jie is one win away from playing for the championship after becoming the first Chinese player to reach the semifinals at Melbourne Park, matching her surprise run at Wimbledon in 2008. Li Na can join her in the final four today by beating sixth-seeded Venus Williams.

After setting a new national standard by giving China two quarterfinalists at the same Grand Slam, Zheng and Li are trying to join players from Belgium and Serbia in securing their country's breakthrough major title.

"It's a big surprise for China," Zheng, 26, said after beating Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3 Tuesday. Getting to the semifinal "will help tennis go up in China."

Zheng will play Thursday against seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin, who became the first Belgian to win one of the sport's four majors when she took the 2003 French Open.

Five months earlier, Sun Tian Tian and Li Ting of China turned up in Melbourne unannounced and asked to be included in the women's doubles draw. Tournament organizers arranged a wild- card entry rather than send them away.

Since then, China has become a growing tennis force. Sun and Li won the women's doubles gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the first gold medal for China in tennis. In 2006, Zheng and Yan Zi won the Australian Open women's doubles title for the country's its first Grand Slam championship. They also won Wimbledon that year.

"Tennis is getting more popular in China," Yan said Tuesday after she and partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the U.S. were ousted from the women's doubles by Venus and Serena Williams. "More people know us and more people like tennis. Maybe it's now a top-five sport."

The unseeded Zheng and 16th-seeded Li had already made their mark in Grand Slam singles at Wimbledon, where Li became the first Chinese player to reach the quarterfinals of a major in 2006. Zheng went one match further two years later.

Their current run has attracted attention back home.

The official Xinhua News Agency had both their photos on the home page of its Web site Tuesday, while Li's progress is being watched daily in Hong Kong's Chinese-language newspapers, who have for years referred to her as "China's golden flower."

By reaching the quarterfinals, Li is guaranteed to surpass the career-best WTA Tour ranking for a Chinese player of 15th, which she shares with Zheng, who is currently ranked 35th.

China's rise can partly be attributed to having a large population from which to pick the best athletic talent and a strong work ethic, according to former No. 1 player and two-time U.S. Open champion Tracy Austin.

"You work them through the system and see who comes out," Austin said in an interview. "That's really the best way because you need the talent and you need the mental toughness. There's so many dimensions to the game, and if you do that, your chances are better."

Among the players standing in the way of China's first Grand Slam singles championship are Henin and the Williams sisters, with 25 major titles among them. Zheng said memories of winning the doubles title at Rod Laver Arena are helping her along.

"I feel the court is lucky for me," Zheng said. "I hope it can continue."

Zheng, at 14-1 and Li, at 33-1, are rated the outsiders to take the title by British bookmaker Ladbrokes. Serena Williams is the 11-10 favorite to win her fifth title at Melbourne Park, ahead of Henin at 2-1.

While a Chinese winner in the women's final on Jan. 30 is a longshot, the country may get its first Grand Slam champion within five years, Austin said.

"From what I've heard, there's so many coming along the pipe that it wouldn't shock me at all," she said.

連長

rhapsody

多谢楼上帮忙截图。自己翻译完毕：http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-220169-1-1.html