Sometimes, the veteran wins. Against teenager Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who has suddenly become a new star of women's tennis, Peng Shuai of China, currently ranked #40, finally reaches her first ever grand slam semi-final in 37 grand slam appearances. It's never too late!
Peng has always been under the shadow of her more illustrious colleagues, Li Na and Zheng Jie. The former has two grand slam titles on her belt while the latter has been to the semi's of several grand slams as well.
Finally, in this year's US Open, Peng Shuai takes her place among those two.
Peng Shuai has reached as high as #14 in 2011, and has reached the 4th round of the grand slams 5 times before, so she is a consistent and competent player. However, this is actually her first quarters and semi's in a grand slam ever. Her best performance here in Flushing Meadows was a 4th round appearance in 2011.
I believe that with the way she is playing now, which is good, clean tennis - Peng has a very good chance of reaching the finals of the US Open, mainly because I am expecting the Caroline Wozniacki and the Sara Errani quarterfinal match to last long into the night and would most likely tax whoever wins the match, physically and mentally. Peng would be the fresher of the two, once semi's day comes.
Anyway, that's me getting ahead of everything. For now, Peng Shuai's win should be broadcast all over China tomorrow with a lot of funfare and inspire hordes of Chinese girls to do as well as today's current batch of players.
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