MELBOURNE, Australia -- Zheng Jie and Yan Zi became
China's first Grand Slam winners on Friday, upsetting top seeds
Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur in the Australian Open women's
doubles final.
Yan and Zheng, who both won singles tournaments last year
and were seeded 12th in the doubles at Melbourne, came from a
set down and saved two match points in a second set tie-break
before going on to win 2-6 7-6 6-3.
"We feel very excited and very happy," Yan told reporters.
"Little bit nervous. Because first time in the centre court.
It's so big and so many people."
Yan said the match, which was broadcast in China, would
help strengthen the game there, although it was too early to
tell if their win would have any impact on the Beijing
Olympics.
"It will be good for Chinese tennis," Yan said through an
interpreter.
"In the near future, we think we could be better, make
progress, improve a lot, and it can stimulate (tennis)."
Australia's Stosur and American Raymond had been seeking
their second successive grand slam title after winning the U.S.
Open in New York last year.
The last doubles pair to win successive grand slam titles
was Virginia Ruano Pascal and Paola Suarez, who won the 2003
U.S. Open, 2004 Australian Open and 2004 French Open.
China has been making big strides in women's tennis in
recent years, highlighted by Li Ting and Sun Tiantian's victory
in the women's doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
They have also won three WTA singles titles in the past two
seasons.
"There's so many Chinese girls now," Raymond told a news
conference.
"When I first started playing, I couldn't name one, you
know, 10, 12 years ago. Now there's, I don't know how many were
in the main draw here? And they have two very good doubles
teams now."
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.