Serena Williams just beat Zheng Jie 6-2, 7-6. Serena goes to the finals against Venus. And Zheng gets ready for a hero's welcome home and an even bigger stage for herself and her countrywomen at the Olympics. Stay tuned...
I'm eagerly anticipating Zheng Jie's semifinal matchup with Serena Williams today in the Wimbledon semis - and clicking on the Wimbledon website for live results, only to find that they're in a rain delay. Good time to surf the web for even more about Zheng. The New York Times' Howard French, who is based in China, has a great feature on her in today's paper. Illuminating not only because of Zheng's personal history, so much of which is relatively unknown to tennis fans who don't regularly follow China, but also because of its reporting on the popularity of tennis in China at the recreational level. A good read until this match gets going. By the way, did I mention that when I was making my way through the San Francisco airport last weekend on the way back from China (more to come on that trip, by the way) that the top Chinese-language newspaper in the U.S., World Journal, had Zheng as its headline story? And by headline, I mean h-e-a-d-l-i-n-e - it was all you could see above the fold. No matter what happens today, Zheng will take all of this momentum with her into the Beijing Olympics - you can expect her to be one of the more anticipated stories of the Games for Chinese fans.
Quick news today out of Houston: Yao Ming's newly-established foundation on behalf of the victims of the Sichuan earthquake is holding a fundraising raffle. The prize is a biggie: an all-expenses paid trip to the Beijing Olympics for two people, including tickets to the U.S.-China basketball match, a tour of the Great Wall of China, a meet and greet with Yao in Houston after a Rockets game next season, and all kinds of other goodies - including a cash prize to offset the winner's tax liability. I'd enter it myself if I wasn't already going to be there (but then I have to work). The lucky winners of this contest get to enjoy seeing Yao play in China, one of the great moments in international basketball, and to see the Olympics and China up close. Good deal. Kudos once again go out to Yao for his foundation's commitment to helping the victims of the earthquake and involving all of his international fans in the relief efforts. Tix are $2 per, with a five-ticket minimum. Prices go down as you buy more. Buy 100 or more and the price goes down to 75 cents a pop.
With all of the great reporting by SI's L. Jon Wertheim from Wimbledon, we've got tennis on the brain this week as the last major tournament before the Olympics draws to a close this weekend. The IOC has tennis on the brain too; the Olympic tennis tournament entries were announced today. Highlights: Federer and Ivanovic are the headliners, and 18 of the top 20 women in and 17 of the top 20 men are confirmed to participate. When Steffi Graf and Stefan Edberg won the Olympic demonstration event in 1984 (it was limited to the 21-and-under crowd that time around), there were doubters who wondered whether wealthy tennis pros would want to add yet another exhausting event to their calendar. The ensuing 24 years have proven the doubters wrong. Tennis returned to full medal status in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics and Graf won again, part of her unprecedented "Golden Slam." That took the importance of the Olympic tennis event to a new level, and it's been a must-play tournament for the top pros ever since. With tennis taking hold as both a professional sport and a sport for players at all levels in China, the Olympic tennis tournament will be a special one in Beijing.
Such a great result for Zheng Jie to make the Wimbledon women's semifinals with yet another upset of another unseeded player - this time it was Nicole Vaidisova, the 18th seed, on the wrong end of Zheng's strong groundstrokes and all-court play. It's hard to overstate how big a deal this is, coming just 38 days before the Olympics begin. It's not just that it's a great result by Zheng and China's best ever showing in women's singles at a Grand Slam, let alone Wimbledon - or that there's a poignant backstory as Zheng hails from Chengdu in Sichuan province, still reeling from the effects of the devastating May 12 earthquake. It's that Zheng really is that good - and it's taken time for China's women to figure out the international game, one of many Western sports that China is now beginning to really develop at the highest levels. Zheng and doubles partner Yan Zi were the very first cover subjects when Sports Illustrated China published its first issue in September of 2006. They earned the honor with two Grand Slam doubles victories that year and even though the U.S. Open, where the cover shot was taken by Bob Martin, wasn't their best tournament, it seemed that China was on the rise the way Russia had been on the rise just a few years back. Then, the hiccups, the injuries, the nerves got the better of the bunch and the same results hadn't been seen again. Until now. Congratulations to Zheng on a terrific Wimbledon and a great Thursday semifinal matchup with Serena Williams.
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