There is good news and bad news for Chinese tennis pairs at the
WTA Qatar Open.
Athens Olympic champions Li Ting and Sun Tiantian have eased
into the women's doubles finals while Australian Open winners Zheng
Jie and Yan Zi were stopped in their tracks in the semi-finals.
It took the Olympic champions only one and a half hours to wind
up their match against Russia's top duo E. Likhovtseva and V.
Zvonareva 6-3, 6-4.
This has been their best match since winning the Olympic doubles
crown in Athens in 2004.
Second seeded Zheng Jie and Yan Zi have not been as successful
as their compatriots, held back by Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama and
D. Hantuchova of the Czech Republic.
The multi-national duo started strong, winning the first set
6-3. China returned with 6-3 in the second set to tie things up.
But the third set saw the Chinese slump again as they lost the
decider 6-3 and eventually the match after a little over two
hours.
(CRI English?March 4, 2006)
