Gold Medal Fights of Universiade Tennis Kick OffLi Na and Li Ting, China's top female tennis pair and top seed of the Universiade, clinched the women's doubles title at the Universiade tennis competitions this afternoon, highlighting the gold medal fights in the five- event tournament, which started Wednesday.The Chinese duo defeated South Koreans Kim Eun-Ha and Kim Mi-Ok 6-4, 6-4 for the title. This is the first gold in the event reaped by China in a global multi-sport games in eight years since Yi Jingqian, China's best- ever female tennis player, and Chen Li won the same event at the Universiade held in 1993. Today's tussle saw a beautiful teamwork of Li Na, who is good at baseline forehand and backhand strikes, and Li Ting, who often volleyed well near the net. The powerful serves made by the Chinese pair also exerted great pressure on second seeded South Korean rivals. The bronze was shared by unseeded French pair, Julie Coin and Emile Scribot, and Chinese Taipei's Janet Lee and Weng Tzu-Ting, the third seed. Unseeded Mexican pair Lozano Carlos and Arredondo Juan took the gold in the men's doubles Wednesday afternoon, beating Czech pair Pavel Kudrnac, Tomas Macharacek, the seventh seed, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Both the two pairs are a composition of one left-handed and one right-handed player. Although the Mexicans are not as tall as their Czech counterparts, they moved quickly near the net and showed the spectators some unbelievable volleys. The Czech pair who are much taller served well and made a number of aces. China's Li Si and Yang Jingzhu, seeded fifth, shared the doubles' bronze with South Korea's Kim Dong-Hyun and Lee Chang- Hoon, the top seed. During today's semifinal of the women's singles, Li Na, China's No.1 and the second seed, smoothly advanced into the final by eliminating South Korea's Chung Yang-Jin, seeded 13th and rated 569th, 6-1, 6-2 in less than one hour. Li Na, world No. 240, was in the upper hand in the match from the beginning to the end. Her accurate and powerful baseline strikes and the wonderful returns of Chung's serves did not give her opponent any chance to catch up. Li Na's rival in the final is Chinese Taipei's Janet Lee, top seed and rated 87th, who cruised into the final by defeating British player Amanda Janes, the 14th seed and ranked 626th, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, in a tussle. Janes, who is tall and strong, exerted great pressure on Janet in the first set, but lost stamina for the last two sets. Janet, defending champions of the women's singles and doubles of the Universiade tennis, gave up the chance to compete in the US Open and came here to try to repeat her glory. Her powerful weapon is thrilling fast serve, which could reach at a speed of 150km per hour, and her full experience in professional competitions. While in the men's singles, South Korea's Lee Seung-Hun, the third seed and rated 494th, and the Russian player, Philippe Moukhometov, the sixth seed and ranked 648th, will fight for the gold. China's mixed pair, Zhu Benqiang and Li Na, the sixth seed, aroused Chinese spectators' hope for another gold in the Universiade tennis competition as they beat the unseeded Czech pair, Tomas Macharacek and Linda Faltynkova, 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinal this afternoon. Their opponent in the final is the German pair, Jan Boruszewski and Claudia Bensch, the second seed, who washed out the South Korean pair, Kim Dong-Hyun and Kim Eun-Ha, the third seed and the defending Universiade champion for the event. The finals of the men's singles, women's singles and the mixed doubles will be held one after another Thursday morning. |
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