Asian stars upstage sister act

2008-06-30 17:25

Angus MacKinnon

London - Venus and Serena Williams edged closer to another Wimbledon final showdown on Monday but the superstar sisters found themselves upstaged by the exploits of two unheralded stars from Asia.

For the first time in Wimbledon history there will be two Asians in the quarter-finals of the women's singles after Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn, who sent second seed Jelena Jankovic packing, was joined in the last eight by Chinese wildcard Zheng Jie.

For Tamarine, who now faces four-time champion Venus Williams, it was a case of ninth-time lucky as she took advantage of Jankovic's struggles with a knee injury to end a run of eight straight defeats in last-16 matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

A 6-3 6-2 victory made the 31-year-old the first Thai to reach a Grand Slam quarter and the achievement was reflected in the tears of joy she wept on Court 18.

The Thai star hailed her breakthrough win as a victory for the game's little people.

"It is great for Asian tennis that Zheng Jie and myself have both made the quarter finals," she said.

"It shows we can produce great tennis and you don't have to be two metres tall or something like that."

All-Williams final?

Jankovic's exit extended the cull of top players in the women's singles with top seed Ana Ivanovic and third seed Maria Sharapova having already tumbled out, shortening the odds on an all-Williams final.

The Serbian's departure was anything but gracious. "Quite solid" was the most she would offer in praise of Tamarine's performance, despite her opponent also having to struggle with an injury, to her back.

Jankovic also claimed she had had a request to play her match later in the day rejected, in a whinge that echoed Venus Williams's frosty reaction to being banished to court number two.

"I don't know what they are doing," Jankovic moaned. "You know, to put Venus on number two and I'm on 18, especially having an injury and asking for a little favour to play later in the day. They didn't do it, so it was quite hard."

Venus Williams emerged unscathed from her trip to the famous "graveyard of champions" but the defending champion was left fuming over scheduling she clearly regarded as a snub for a player gunning for her fifth singles title at the All England Club.

She moved moved a step closer to that objective by beating fast-rising Russian teenager Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 6-3 before expressing surprise organisers had not found space on either Centre Court or Court Number One for herself or Serena, who eased past Bethanie Mattek 6-3, 6-3.

"There is not too much I am going to say about that in the press," Venus said with a glare that left no-one in the audience with any doubt as to her true feelings.

"Obviously we know wherever we play we have to play well and that is pretty much all I'm going to say about that."

Williams went on to agree with a suggestion that men's champion Roger Federer or his main rival Rafael Nadal would not have to put up with similar treatment. "You said it," she said. "It is true."

Zheng followed up her defeat of Ivanovic in the last round by demolishing Hungarian 15th seed Agnes Szavay 6-3 6-4 and she will fancy her chances of continuing her run against her next opponent, the Czech 18th seed Nicole Vaidisova.

- SAPA