Chinese tennis star Zheng Jie is no chicken

Here's a lesson in cultural diplomacy.

Zheng Jie, a native of earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province in China, is the first Chinese tennis player to make a Grand Slam semifinal, and the most successful wild card competitor in Wimbledon's history. She's a towering figure in Chinese sports, and yet Western broadcasters can't even say her name properly. In fact, sometimes, they are inadvertently calling her a prostitute or a chicken.

My friends kept telling me that, those commentators from ESPN and NBC butcher the 24-year-old's name every 10 minutes. I don't expect your average American to get it right off the bat, but 2008 is the year of the Beijing Olympics, and the networks need to be on their game when it comes to China. Some Wimbledon commentators claim they've been to Beijing to prepare for the games. Yet even the Wimbledon court announcer said her name properly while the commentators -- who clearly need to attend remedial Chinese name pronunciation school -- stammered.

It would take an hour at most to grasp the pronunciation system, and then we could avoid reducing a language with thousands of years of history and more than a billion speakers to a bunch of garbled, quasi-French "j" sounds. Her name isn't Je je or Jeng jee. It's Jung ji-eh (with a hard "j" like "jump"). Jee or "ji" can mean "chicken," "prostitute," or even, ironically, "difficult to pronounce."

Zheng lost to Serena Williams today, meaning that the Williams sisters will go at it on Saturday in the final and I'll be spared -- for the time being -- hearing her name butchered. The Chinese star plans to donate much of her Wimbledon prize money to victims of the Sichuan earthquake, as she did with her French Open third-round proceeds. According to the Boston Herald, the rest of the money will go toward the Chinese Tennis Association.  

Talk about this match.  If a win against two-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was too much to ask for, the legions of Zheng supporters will have been thrilled at the way she battled and pushed her opponent.

Here is what the post-match report says...

After losing the first set 6-2, the second was a different story as the 24-year-old went a break up and even had a set point on the formidable Williams serve.  But it was not to be, the American holding her nerve to claim a 6-2 7-6 (7-5) win.

Afterwards, Zheng, whose quarter-final win against Nicole Vaidisova was reportedly watched by 100 million people in China, said: "I knew there were millions and millions of people watching me back home. I did really want to win. But overall I'm quite satisfied with the performance." 

Zheng said the most memorable thing about her experience was that 'lots of people in Centre Court supported me'. But there will be many, many more when she returns to China in search of Olympic glory.

"I don't know if they will treat me like a hero or not, but I will use this experience from Wimbledon to have better expectations in the Olympics and to have better achievements," she said.

Zheng's semi-final defeat has denied her the opportunity of competing for the Wimbledon crown on the day of her 25th birthday, but she plans to stick around to watch the contest between Serena and sister Venus.

"I hope I can watch the final here," she said. "I feel maybe that Serena has more chance to win, but I think it's a great final."

AND, this is what I called TRUE SPORTSMANSHIP (or sportswomanship? LOL)

Here is a short recap in Chinese for Zheng's magical journey in Wimbledon this year:

鄭潔激戰莎蓮娜　雖敗猶榮

成為首位中國人打入網球大滿貫4強的鄭潔，周四在溫布頓網賽女單準決賽面對美國的莎蓮娜威廉絲，以2:6落後第1盤，比賽曾因天雨暫停。其後，鄭潔再以6:7輸第二盤，以0:2被淘汰。「川妹子」鄭潔雖未能進入決賽，但雖敗猶榮的她仍獲網壇一致好評。

鄭潔面對7個大滿貫冠軍莎蓮娜，無論發球或抽擊威力，都不及對手，第1盤僅打了28分鐘便以2:6輸波；第一盤末段倫敦下起驟雨，比賽暫停約半小時，讓鄭潔有喘息機會，在第2盤更一度打破「細威」發球局，領先4:2；雖然在場觀眾多為鄭潔打氣，但力量始終輸蝕，鄭潔立即被莎蓮娜打破發球局，雙方戰至決勝局，「細威」以7:5勝出，令鄭潔無緣晉身決賽。 拍賣「勝利毛巾」

鄭潔賽前說：「這次是我第一次打入大滿貫準決賽，我有點緊張，我會盡最大努力，不過莎蓮娜是偉大球手。」鄭潔表示願意將今屆賽事全部獎金捐予四川賑災；鄭潔打入4強獲得約290萬港元，連同之前女雙贏得24萬港元，而一般中國網球員需將約6成獎金上繳，鄭潔將為災區帶來約120萬港元善款；她更將8強時使用的「勝利毛巾」作拍賣。

同日較早時上演的另一場準決賽，7號種籽威廉絲以直落兩盤6:1、7:6，擊敗5號種籽、俄羅斯的狄文泰娃；已奪得4屆溫布頓女單冠軍的威廉絲賽後說：「對手與我打法相似，同樣都有強勁抽擊，不過今仗我發揮較她佳。」

One more note:

"Zheng & Yan, hope to see you again in HK!!"