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Zheng Jie upsets world No 1 in LA

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-08 14:53

LOS ANGELES: China's Zheng Jie, the 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist, said she may have discovered the most effective way of defeating current world No 1 Dinara Safina, who has won all four of their head-to-head meetings. Keep her moving.

Zheng, seeded 14th, overcame a barrage of powerful groundstrokes from the Russian in the third round of the LA Championships on Thursday and won their fifth career clash 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in a 130-minute tussle.

China's Zheng Jie returns a shot against Russia's Dinara Safina during their tennis match at the LA Women's Tennis Championships in Carson, California, August 6, 2009. [Agencies]

Zheng snapped the four-match losing streak to Safina that dates back to 2005 when they met in the early rounds of the Australian Open. Safina beat Zheng in last year's French Open and the Beijing Olympics and another three setter earlier this year on the clay courts in Rome.

"I know she has a big serve, but her movement around the court is not that great. I tried to give her more forehands and get her moving more," said the world No 23 after her win at the $700,000 hardcourt event.

Safina had appeared on course for victory when she forged a 4-2 lead in the third set. But she quickly imploded, handing back the break with a double-fault before losing the final eight points of the match to crash out of the tournament.

"I gave my best and tried to play more offensively on every point," Zheng said.

Safina, the defending champion and who is in her 16th consecutive week as the world's top-ranked women's player, turned the tables in the second set by breaking Zheng's serve in the ninth game.

Russia's Dinara Safina returns a shot to China's Zheng Jie during their tennis match at the LA Women's Tennis Championships in Carson, California August 6, 2009. [Agencies]

The Russian then struggled with her serve and committed a number of unforced errors in the third set. She was repeatedly swung side to side by Zheng's all-court play. The Chinese made 77 percent of her first serves and had just one double fault.

"I turned the match around with a break in the third set and I started to play much better and I just didn't use my opportunities," Safina said. "I didn't do the right things.

"I should have played better. She took her chances and beat me."

Zheng said she learned from her Rome defeat to Safina in May where she held a 5-2 lead in the third set but still wound up losing the match.

"You need to be aggressive when playing against someone like Safina. When I was 2-4 down in the third, I told myself to keep attacking and it worked," Zheng said.

This is Zheng's second victory against a reigning world No 1 following her Cinderella run at last year's Wimbledon where she upset then world No 1 Ana Ivanovic.

Her compatriot Li Na has also defeated a world No 1 when she bested Serena Williams last year at the Porsche's Grand Prix in Stuttgart. Li walked over her Thursday's third-round match against Poland's Urszula Radwanska, who pulled out of the match with a right knee injury.

Zheng, who missed half of the 2008 season from injury, said she felt much happier coming back to the court this time.

"I just want some fun and I can have a lot of fun when I am playing tennis," said the two-time grand slam women's doubles winner.

As for the injury, Zheng said it does not bother her anymore but she wears a strap to support the injured ankle.

With the victory, Zheng improves to 21-15 in 2009 as she seeks her fourth career WTA title.

Zheng's victory was one of three upsets of top ranked players on Thursday as Ivanovic and fifth seeded Nadia Petrova were ousted.

China Daily/AFP/Reuters