Today, Zheng Jie became the first Chinese woman in history to get to the semifinals of a major tennis tournament. She defeated Nicole Vaidisova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the quarterfinal I enjoyed the most today (though I did not see every moment of it). I was not surprised that Zheng won. She has used her wild card to great advantage, and taken out not only the world's number 1 player, but also the number 15 seed, Agnes Szavay. Her draw has been difficult, and she has held up well, playing her excellent grass court game very steadily, and hanging in during bad patches.
Vaidisova, for her part, is not the most mentally tough player around. She has talent, but she can fold under pressure. It was a bit surprising, in fact, to see her not fold during her round of 16 third set against Anna Chakvetadze; however, one then remembers that Chakvetadze is even more mentally fragile than Vaidisova.
Zheng's next opponent is Serena Williams. If Zheng does not succomb to nerves the way Tamarine Tanasugarn did today, that could be an entertaining semifinal match.
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