1/26 Yung-Jan Chan（詹永然） and Chia-Jung Chuang（莊佳容）of Taiwan have their first "Grand Slam" final in the women's double of Australian Open. I'm still very happy for them, though they don't win the title at the end. I accidentally watched their quarter-final match, which they totally dominated with 6-0, 6-0 against USA's Ashley Harkleroad and Russia's Galina Voskoboeva. It's already the best performance of Taiwan tennis players in the Grand Slam. I was not sure whether they were too good or the opponents were just not focused enough. Anyway, I feel they play surprisingly well.
Then it came to the semi-final against Zi Yan（晏紫）and Jie Zheng（鄭潔）of China, the No.2 seed of Australian Open and 2 Grand Slam titles 2006, including Austrlian title. They kept playing great and won over the match with 6-3, 6-4. They were defeated by that pair in the final of Asian Games last month, but had a quick revenge.
Finally it came to the final. We couldn't help thinking they might have a chance to be the champs, though I believe nobody even thought they could go this far in the beginning. Anyway, I just felt like cheering for them and were very happy they did show their toughness and potential to be great players in the future. Beside of the great game they play, I am surprised by the fluent English they speak. I guess I need to work on my English, or it gonna get worse.
One reason I want them to win is the more they win, the more money they would get. It's rare that the enterprises in Taiwan would sponsor tennis players, especially when they were not famous. However, tennis costs a player a lot. Not only the rackets, and dresses, but also training expenses, transportation to tournaments and accomodations, are much more than a normal family can sustain. Those two players are already the top players of Taiwan, but still don't have enough sponsors to support them, no need to mention the rest of the players. The tennis players of Taiwan play excellently well since the Asian Games in December. Hopefully there would be more sponsors to the tennis to help the players have a better chance to climb to the top. Of course, it's not tennis that has the financial problem. All sports have the financial issues. Therefore, it's not a problem that can be solved in one day, and I really don't have answer for this. Maybe this is my new "Systems Thinking" quiz to find out how the reality is created and how we can change it.
P.S. I don't feel that excited after the match of Date v.s. Graf in Wimbledon. Date used to be the best player of Japan and my favorite player, while Graf was the No.1 player in the world. Really enjoy the three games of Chan and Chuang, and wish they can have a better performance in the matches this year and no need to borrow or sell a car to have enough money to play in one tourament.
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