BBC隨身英語:中國女選手溫網奪冠

China has won its first ever Wimbledon trophy with a three set victory by Yan Zi and Zheng Jie over veteran duo Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez in the womens’ doubles.

The fourth-seeded Chinese pair made history by destroying their opponents 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in a game lasting two hours and eight minutes. They will share £205,280 in prize money.

Zheng Jie summed up their achievement after the game. “We are very happy and proud to be the first Chinese Doubles Champions at Wimbledon”, she said, “It has been a very good year for us and we hope to keep winning more titles in the future.”

Zheng Jie has every reason to be happy and proud – the Wimbledon win takes her career prize money earnings to over $1 million.

Their Wimbledon success follows their impressive performance in the Australian Open in January of this year when they became the first ever Chinese players to win a Grand Slam competition.

Zheng Jie and Yan Zi are not alone in raising the profile of Chinese tennis players internationally. Li Na managed to battle her way to the quarter-finals of the women’s singles competition before conceding defeat to Belgium’s Kim Clijsters.

It seems that winning gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics has stimulated the development of Chinese tennis, in particular women’s tennis.

Gu Jue from Shanghai TV explains, “The Chinese government invests more in women’s tennis because they have to choose a way to make improvements, but men’s tennis is much more competitive. It’s much easier to make improvements in women’s tennis.”

With six Chinese women playing in this year’s Wimbledon, surely it is only a matter of time before the men make their mark too.

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GLOSSARY 詞滙表

three set victory 三磐勝利

women’s doubles 女子雙打

made history 載入史冊

summed up 縂結

earnings 所得,收入

Grand Slam 大滿貫

battle her way 奮戰

stimulated the development 促進發展

improvements 提高

a matter of time 時間問題

veteran duo 經騐豐富的老搭档

fourth-seeded 位居第四的種子選手

prize money 獎金

proud 驕傲

impressive performance 令人稱贊的表現, 表縯

raising the profile 提高聲望

conceding defeat 任輸;承認失敗

invests 投資

competitive 競爭的

make their mark 榜上有名