Trailblazing Chinese tennis player Zheng Jie will have to defeat one of her idols if she is to create even more history at this year’s Australian Open.
Zheng, who is unseeded, powered into the semifinals on Tuesday when she beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-3, becoming the first Chinese player to make the Australian Open last four.
She created similar history in 2006 when she reached the same stage at Wimbledon.
But if she wants to go any further this year she must beat vastly experienced Justine Henin, the seven-time Grand Slam champion who is making a tennis comeback, and a player whom Zheng freely admits she greatly admires.
Zheng first became interested in tennis when as a girl she watched a match between Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, and the former German great is still her favourite.
“Yes, Graf is my favourite player, number one,” Zheng said. “Justine is number three.”
When asked who was number two, a laughing Zheng simply replied: “Roger.”
“First of all, I admire her [Henin] because she is so strong mentally,” she added.
“I always watch her play, how do you say, I enjoy watching her play.
“Secondly, I think it is a tough match for me, is a big challenge, but I like it.”
Zheng will be the underdog heading into the semifinal, but she could cause Henin some problems if she is able to reproduce the form she showed against Kirilenko.
Zheng was always in control against the 23-year-old, who took to the court with her left thigh heavily bandaged and called for a medical time out at the end of the first set.
She raced through the first set in just 34 minutes as she broke Kirilenko twice, her all court coverage and accurate groundstrokes proving too much for her opponent.
Kirilenko was obviously hampered by her leg injury and wasn’t able to get any power behind her shots, making them easy pickings for the determined Zheng.
“In the beginning I didn’t feel it. Then after three games, like we had such long points, I started to feel it in my right leg,” said Kirilenko.
“Then the physio taped my right leg. After the five minutes’ break I started to feel it on the left again. I was feeling pain everywhere.”
The Russian continued to get running repairs from the trainer at each change of ends and her game picked up in the second set.
Zheng broke Kirilenko’s first game of the second set, but the Russian held comfortably after that and had four chances to break back in the sixth game.
However, she wasn’t able to do so and at 5-3 Zheng attacked a dispirited Kirilenko and the Russian cracked, serving a double fault on match point.
“This game I think is very important (when she saved the break points,” Zheng said.
“I came back from 0-40, to make the games 4-2. It gave me more confidence and more belief that I could finish in two sets.”
Zheng won her first Grand Slam title in 2006 when she took out the Australian Open doubles, with Yan Zi.
“I feel this court is lucky for me so I hope I can be here at the end of the week,” she said.
She is now guaranteed to move back inside the top 20 on the world rankings for the first time since June last year. — AFP