China's Yan Zi and Zheng Jie reached their second Grand Slam final of the year yesterday when they beat Zimbabwe's Cara Black and Australian partner Rennae Stubbs 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) in the Wimbledon semi-finals.

 

The Australian Open champions will face the Spanish/Argentinean pairing of Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez in the final.

 

Zheng is also in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles later Friday when she teams up with Max Mirnyi of Belarus to take on Bob Bryan and Venus Williams of the US.

 

China has already enjoyed a breakthrough Wimbledon with Li Na becoming the first Chinese player to make the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam singles competition.

 

At the Athens Olympics in 2004, Li Ting and Sun Tiantian became the first-ever Chinese tennis medallists, winning the gold in women's doubles.

 

Zheng and Yan then became the first Chinese players to rank in the top 10 for doubles. Zheng and Li Na also contested the first all-Chinese singles final last month in Estoril, Portugal.

 

(China Daily July 8, 2006)