Chinese pair Zheng Jie and Yan Zi were sent packing from the women's
doubles at the semifinals of the Australian Open today as they were beaten 6-0,
7-6, 7-5(7-3) by Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Shahar Peer from Israel.
The Chinese former champions looked on course for victory when they won the
first set without losing one game, but were then outplayed by the opponents in a
match lasting two hours 27 minutes.
Downing the first set, Azarenka and Peer came back strongly in the second set
as they broke the Chinese pair's first serve game and led the game to 6-4. After
Zheng and Yan broke back in the 10th game, Azarenka and Peer took two points to
push the match into the third set.
Both sides held their serve games in the deciding set and make it 6-6. After
tied at 3-3 in the tiebreaker, Azarenka and Peer scored four points in a row to
seal the victory.
