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China Claims Women's Tennis Doubles Title at Universiade
Li Na and Li Ting, China's top female tennis pair and the top seed of the Universiade, clinched the women's doubles title at the Universiade tennis competitions here Wednesday afternoon, beating South Korea's Kim Eun-Ha and Kim Mi-Ok, the second seed, 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
This is the first gold in this event reaped by China in multi- sport games in eight years since Yi Jingqian, China's best-ever female tennis player, and Chen Li won the women's doubles at the Universiade in 1993.
Today's tussle saw a beautiful teamwork of Li Na, who is good at baseline forehand and backhand strikes, and Li Ting, often volleyed well near the net. The powerful serves made by the Chinese pair also exerted great pressure on the South Koreans.
"I got used to the rhythm of the match very well as the South Koreans' strikes were not fast," Li Ting told reporters at the after-match press briefing.
"During the match, I tried my best to approach the net as close as possible and put pressure on the opponents by volleys, as Li Na created chances for me by striking hard on the baseline," she added.
After winning the first set by breaking a serve of the South Koreans, Li Na and Li Ting led the second set 3-1. However, the South Koreans fought back and took three games including one breaking serve and gained the upper hand 4-3.
The Chinese pair altered the tactics quickly. Li Ting, who often stood in front of one half of the net, made several suprising speedy moves to the other half and volleyed the balls to the areas between the two South Koreans. And Li Na, who was caught in the rally with one opponent standing on the baseline, sometimes suddenly targeted the balls toward the body of the other South Korean player. These changes worked and the Chinese pair regained the leading place 5-4 in set scores.
Kim Mi-Ok said at the after-match press briefing that she and her teammate decided to play from the baseline to the net instead of standing near the net directly because they were weaker in service.
"The Chinese players moved so quickly near the net, which forced us to try to drag the match into rallies of baseline strikes," she added.
The match went to the climax when the last set saw five deuce with three match points for the Chinese pair. Li Ting grabbed the third match point by volleying the ball deeply to the corner near the baseline.
When the ball hit the ground and jumped far away to a line judge, all the home crowd stood up, raising their arms and calling, "China, China." A young man holding a Chinese national flag ran around the stands, which won loud applause from the hundreds spectators.
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