Talking Balls: Rackets, Brackets & Super Pay Packets

Chinese tennis poster girl Zheng Jie has hammered her way through to a Semi-Final against Justin Henin in the Australian Open in Melbourne. Her opponent in the Quarter-Final was the also unseeded Maria Kirilenko. She saw off the Russian in two sets – 6-1 and 6-3. Zheng had beaten the Muscovite in four of their previous five matches. If I were a gambling man, and in a country that did not rightly forbid such a pursuit, I would say the odds favored the Chengdu native from the start. In any case, Zheng is set to do nicely for making it this far, winning AUD 400,000 (around RMB 2.5 million) for being a semi-finalist.

Zheng has a history at the tournament having previously won the Women’s Doubles competition with Zi Yan. Reaching a Grand Slam Semi-Final matches the World No. 35’s highest solo career point to date, reaching the same point at Wimbledon in 2008. However, her only game against Henin came nearly five years ago and was won in straight sets by the Belgian.

China may have two of its women stars in the Semis at Melbourne. Li Na, the tournament’s 16th seed, takes on Venus Williams in the Quarters. This game takes place at 8am Beijing time on Wednesday, Jan 27.

Another Chinese woman, Yan Zi, and her doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands are taking on Venus and her sister Serena. At the time of writing it was one set all in the Women’s Doubles Quarter-Finals match.

Zheng Zhi watch. Celtic beat Morton 1-0 in the Active Nation Scottish Cup with the China captain playing the full 90 minutes. Celtic then beat St. Johnstone 4-1 in the Scottish Premier League last weekend with Zheng replace after 61 minutes, when Celtic were losing 1-0. Celtic are currently seven points behind leaders Rangers, but have a game in hand on their bitter rivals.

Finally, fans of pigskin, helmets and tailgating can rejoice. The combatants of Super Bowl XLIV have been confirmed. The Indianapolis Colts will take on the New Orleans Saints in the showpiece for USD 83,000 (a little over RMB 500,00) per player in prize money and a lovely shiny ring each. You have a little over 12 days to decide which bar will be the one for you to watch the world’s most expensive adverts. Touchdown.