Tennis-Zheng's Wimbledon success boosts China's Olympic hopes

BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) - Zheng Jie's victory over world number one Ana Ivanovic at Wimbledon has reignited China's hopes of tennis gold at the Beijing Olympics after a largely dismal 18 months for the country's leading women players. The 24-year-old became the first Chinese to beat a reigning world number one with a 6-1 6-4 thrashing of Serb Ivanovic in the third round on Friday, a victory all the more remarkable because she was playing as a wild card ranked 133rd in the world. Zheng, who missed most of last year with an ankle injury, is a former Wimbledon and Australian Open doubles champion as well as an Asian Games doubles and singles champion. "All she's missing is an Olympic gold," read a headline in Titan Sport newspaper. "China's golden flower expected to bloom at the Olympics," added Beijing Youth Daily. China's... [read full story]