The No.12 seeded pair of Zi Yan and Jie Zheng have 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 victory in the women's doubles final at Australian Open 2006 on Friday.
The Chinese pair saved two match points in the second set, eventually forcing 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.
Local favourite Stosur had appeared on track to claim her second Grand-Slam title after winning the US Open with Raymond last year, but they appeared to lose focus after failing to put the match away.
Raymond's winning percentage on first-serve points plummeted to just 33 per cent in the third set, while Zheng's improved from 45 per cent in the second to 89 in the deciding set.
An elated Yan admitted the enormity of the occasion had affected their play early in the match.
"We feel very exciting and very happy," she said in faltering English.
"(We were a) little bit nervous because first time in the centre court. It's so big and so many people, so we have little bit nervous."
Yan agreed their win would provide a huge boost for the sport in China.
"It will be good for Chinese tennis," she said.
"In the near future, I think we could be better, make a progress, improve a lot, and it can stimulate (the sport) a little bit."
The win comes on the back of a breakout year for the Chinese combination which won titles in Hobart and Hyderabad as well as finishing runners-up in Bali and Beijing.
A disconsolate Stosur admitted they had struggled to combat Yan and Zheng's game plan.
"I think that both of them staying back on our serves is a little bit different to a lot of teams," she said.
"Then you got to find the angles on the court, then you don't want to open up the angles too much to give them room to pass you.
"They were pretty good lobbers as well, so you couldn't, closing out, you couldn't really back off either. But just you just had to try and pick what they were gonna do and do it.
"We were doing that for a set and a half and then once they got a sniff, they kind of didn't let it go and they really, I think, picked up their game a bit in the end to close it out."
The American and Australian 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, with each player on-court losing their serve three times.
In securing the title, the Chinese pair defeated four teams that were seeded higher than them, including No.4 seeds and 2004 Australian Open winners Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez who held three match points during their quarter-final encounter.
Match facts ． Raymond/Stosur committed seven unforced errors to Yan/Zheng's one
． Yan/Zheng's winning percentage on first serve was 60 per cent
． The Chinese pairing won a total of 109 points compared to Raymond/Stosur's 101
小5
2006-01-28 16:34
yeah We are proud of them!!
xyzmoon
2006-01-29 12:08
引用第6楼 jon于2006-01-28 11:01发表的:转一下澳网官网的文章：http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/reports/2006-01-27/200601271138349321400.htmlChina Wins First Grand Slam TitleFriday, 27 January, 2006by Jason Phelan.......
