National relief efforts
England's Murray, China's Zheng raise some hopes
LONDON - Take your pick. The story today at Wimbledon is either a guy with a pronounceable name, Andy Murray, or a China doll with an unpronounceable name, Zheng Jie.
When the 21-year-old Scotsman Murray, out of Dunblane, awoke yesterday morning, he knew how the Duke of Wellington felt the day after he beat Napoleon at Waterloo.
London was his, at least the front and back pages - and many in between - of the numerous dailies, as well as loads of TV and radio minutes because he, too, had beaten a Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, improbably in a tennis tournament.
In a town where the prime minister is under fire, the pound feels like a ton (at least to Americans with their puny dollars), and the sun makes people nervous by shining on and on, Murray was just the good news that everybody needed. He was regarded as a grouchy, unpatriotic, overpaid kid when he walked onto Centre Court Monday evening. About four hours later, in darkness, and with Great Britain at his feet, he had removed the Frenchman, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 6-4, and his tennis-poor Isles had a contender.
British-French enmity goes back a long way and several wars, so one overenthused journalist compared Murray with King Henry V knocking out the cross-Channel neighbors at Agincourt in 1415. "Shakespeare would have loved Andy," wrote another.
"This is ecstasy!" wrote yet another.
Forgotten was Andy's recent dodging of Davis Cup duty (contributing to a defeat by Argentina), and considered so sinful in this territory that he was publicly condemned by teammate (and brother) Jamie Murray.
Never mind. He's in the quarterfinals today against Rafael Nadal, and the countryside is goo-goo with Murray madness. The general feeling is that the queen should give Andy the knighthood she lifted from the Zimbabwean psychopath, Mugabe.
If he should ever capture the Wimbledon crown - last won by a Brit in 1936, Fred Perry - Andy will be richer than the queen. You can see how frantically a win here or there can stir the English. After giving the world Wimbledon, they deserve a champ.
Britain has been through this before, of course, vainly seeking a successor to Perry. Not long ago, Tiny Tim Henman became beloved in his quests for the title - but Pete Sampras was always in the way. Murray appears better equipped, swift and (sometimes) very combative. Being three wins from nirvana gives him hero status. For 24 hours anyway.
From the hero we switch to the unpronounceable heroine: Zheng Jie. Doesn't look hard, but no umpire or TV babbler has gotten it right yet. A kindly Shanghai reporter, Jade Gu, stopped by my desk to lecture me. She instructs, "It sounds like this - Jun Tee-ah. With the correct tones. Repeat, please."
I try. And try. And come close. So who cares? Who? Millions of Chinese, that's who. And why? Because the lady has done the previously undone, news that is flashing across that vast land where Chairman Mao himself had a brief tennis career. (It ended sadly when a goat ate the net that he and comrades used during the Long March days in Shensi Province.)
Arriving in London, looking for a handout - a wild card - Jie, ranking No. 133, not only was the beneficiary of management's charity but progressed to the semifinals over a Czech, No. 18 Nicole Vaidisova. No female wild card had gone past the quarters, but Jie did, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, the last of four foes outranking her. The going gets rougher: ex-champ Serena Williams tomorrow.
"It's a dream," Jie said through a translator. "I will try my best against Serena." As if beating No. 1, Ana Ivanovic, in the third round wasn't enough, she kept her flat strokes low, taking to grass as though it were Sichuan green beans, a favorite where she comes from.
Yes, Jie is from way out west, a handsome Sichuan city called Chengdu, 50 miles from the area struck by the recent deadly earthquakes.
Could she become a wild-card champion? Only one has made that journey from panhandling to the palace: Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, ranked 125.
If Murray awakens today feeling like Lord Nelson of Trafalgar, Zheng Jie, feels like Mrs. Li Chen, grateful to her husband/coach for "improving my serve." She has made them rich. Sort of. "I want to give my prize money to earthquake relief and to try to raise more money."
She isn't sure how much she can give away. Or even how much is hers, since the Chinese federation operates like the bygone Soviets, keeping most of the prize money for the federation.
We'd better learn to pronounce that name.
