Ten: Chinese pair win women's doubles gold

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2004
Ten: Chinese pair win women's doubles gold

ATHENS, Aug 22 Reuters - Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won China's first Olympic medal
in tennis today, taking the women's doubles gold with a solid victory over Spain.

The Chinese rolled over second seeds Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3
6-3 on centre court before running round the arena draped in the Chinese flag.

Their victory, achieved in 89 minutes, was greeted by exuberant celebrations from the
many Chinese fans in the tennis centre.

"It is unbelievable that we have this gold medal," Sun said. "It is a great honour
for us, thank you."

Li said: "We just did our best. We didn't think about whether or not we could win...

we just did our best."

While for the eighth-seeded Chinese pair, victory meant a first Olympic medal in the
sport for their nation, defeat for Martinez left her still hankering for gold.

The former Wimbledon singles champion has a doubles silver medal from Barcelona in
1992 and a bronze from Atlanta in 1996 - both won with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

The Chinese pair had beaten Paola Suarez and Patricia Tarabini in the semi-finals.

The Argentines went on to win bronze.

In a curious twist, Spain's Ruano Pascual and Argentina's Suarez are the world's top-ranked
doubles pair while Martinez and Tarabini also competed as a winning doubles pair for many
years.

The Chinese duo said they were now looking forward to their home Games in Beijing in 2008.

"We are ready for it... we are confident we will be even better by then," Sun smiled.

Reuters sp

KEYWORD: OLY TENNIS DOUBLES LEAD

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