Wild card Zheng cracks at crucial point allowing Serena to progress

FOR a brief shining moment on a largely overcast day, Jie Zheng looked like she might have a chance of pulling off the upset of the fortnight and beating Serena Williams in their semi-final on Centre Court yesterday.

A set down, the Chinese woman had one point to level the contest with Williams serving at 5-6, but she lamely sent her return into the net, and the opportunity was gone.

It was an uncharacteristically weak moment from a woman who had impressed with her consistency and professionalism throughout the previous five rounds, and one was to follow five minutes or so later in the second-set tiebreak.

Serving at match-point down, Zheng double-faulted to lose 6-3, 7-6 and confirm what had been expected all week: that tomorrow's women's final will be a rerun of those of 2002 and 2003, in both of which Serena beat her elder sister Venus.

Even when she got that chance in the second set, Zheng arguably owed more to the weather than to her own play. She had been unable to withstand Serena's power in the first set, and had just salvaged four set-points to make it 5-2 when the rain came.

The American made short work of the next game when play resumed, but she found it harder going in the second set as Zheng rediscovered the timing and accuracy which had seen off opponents such as Elena Baltacha and Ana Ivanovic in previous rounds. The No6 seed and the wildcard traded blows throughout the second set, with Zheng's service far less vulnerable than it had in the first.

Then, with Zheng a point away from going 6-5 ahead, the rain returned. When the match got going again for a second time, she had lost that vital edge which had kept her in the contest. That 11th game which had been plain sailing suddenly entered choppy waters, and it was only after six deuces and two saved break-points that she won it. She did have that break point to take the set 7-5, but once that had vanished the game was up.

"Her serve was simply too big," Zheng said later, after a match which attracted record TV audiences for tennis in China. "On other (surfaces] I'd have a better chance."

The first Chinese player to reach the last four of a grand slam, on this form and with home backing Zheng will have a good chance of winning a medal at the Olympic Games.