Dinara Safina, Jelena Jankovic, Marion Bartoli, Maria Sharapova. Those were the Top 16 seeds in the bottom quarter of the draw. So how are Zheng Jie and Maria Kirilenko the only names left there?Zheng Jie was the first of the pair to win - and the first Chinese ever to go this far at the Australian Open - with a 76(5) 64 win over Alona Bondarenko. Zheng took Bartoli out in the third round; Bondarenko beat Jankovic.
"Australia is lucky for me because I won my first Grand Slam doubles title here," said Zheng, who won with Yan Zi here in 2006, China's very first major title of any kind. "With Li Na in the fourth round as well, I think we can go far."
Zheng was also the first Chinese ever to reach the singles semifinals of a Grand Slam, doing so at Wimbledon in 2008. That - and the results of her doubles team, Li and others like Athens Olympic doubles champs Sun Tiantian and Li Ting, have contributed to a Chinese tennis boom over the last few years.
"I feel tennis is going up very quickly in China," Zheng added. "We have a good tournament, the China Open, and you can see lots of the newspapers talking about tennis much more now. We have more top players now too."
Kirilenko reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal through some unique circumstances, as No.2 seed Safina retired down 5-4 in the first set with a low back injury. Kirilenko had taken Sharapova out earlier in the tournament.
"Of course I feel very bad. To get an injury is the worst thing you can get in a tournament. I feel bad for Dinara," Kirilenko said. "But of course it's nice to be in my first quarterfinal. I'd prefer to win and get there, but I'm happy about it.
"When I was a kid, I had a dream to be still in the main draw in Australia when it's my birthday. Now my dream has come true."
An emotional Safina spoke about the situation to the press afterwards.
"I didn't think this could happen. I did an MRI before I came here. I don't know what happened. It's shocking," said Safina, who struggled with her back in the second half of last season. "It's exactly the same injury as in Doha. Exactly the same. I cannot move anywhere. Whenever I try to move, it hurts terribly.
"The plan for me is see the doctor as soon as possible to see what happened. I don't know how I will pack my bags. I'll ask my team to help, because I don't know how to move. Maybe I'll stay here one more day. I don't know..."
No. 19 seed Nadia Petrova scored another exciting win against No. 3 seed and compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova, 63 36 61, while Justine Henin outlasted Yanina Wickmayer with a score of 76(3) 16 63 to get to the quarters.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Singles - Fourth Round
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. (2) Dinara Safina (RUS) 54 ret. (low back injury)
(19) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 63 36 61
Zheng Jie (CHN) d. (31) Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 76(5) 64
(WC) Justine Henin (BEL) d. (Q) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 76(3) 16 63
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