Their success is even more surprising given that both Zheng and Yan were once deemed physically unsuitable for playing tennis professionally. The five-foot-four-inch Zheng was refused for being too short while Yan was refused for her slim figure. Zheng recalled when the provincial team wanted to give up on her, her coach insisted on her staying, promising that he would train Zheng to become one of the top three players in China. Zheng proceeded to make it into the national games at the age of 18 and as a result was selected as a member of the national team.

Recalling the earlier days of her tennis career when the prospect of success looked unlikely Zheng said, "Athletes could easily be crushed by low self-confidence. Luckily, I am an obstinate girl and was always stimulated by other people's negative predestinations. I said to myself that I should try hard to prove them wrong, which led to my success today."

Wang Liangzuo, who has been the coach for Zheng and Yan since November 2002, added, "This kind of never-yielding attitude and rising confidence is an important reason for the Chinese women tennis team's eye-catching performance in recent years."

Both Zheng and Yan have their own "secret weapons" on the tennis court, according to Wang. For Zheng it is her talented mind for tennis and for Yan it is her fast pace.

Chinese tennis players used to suffer from low self-esteem and preferred to practice with other Chinese players when receiving training abroad, said Wang. "Even if the self-contempt in your eyes is hardly noticeable, it will give your competitor the chance to win the game," he added. To overcome their ingrained fear of foreign players Wang matches all of the athletes he tutors with foreign players in training. His strategy has worked so well for Zheng and Yan that more often than not it is their opponents that begin to lack belief in their ability to win.

China was a late starter in the tennis world compared to many other countries. Before the Athens Olympics in 2004, where China collected a record-breaking 32 gold medals, the Chinese tennis team was given the minimal task of winning only one match. They went on to astonish the world when the unknown team Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won the country's first ever tennis gold.

Recalling the experience, Sun said, "Even before the game with number one seed Paola Suarez and Tarabini Patricia from Argentina, we still believed we had half a chance of winning." Her confidence was not groundless since the two pairs had competed several times before. Li added, "Confidence does not come from nowhere. We had accumulated plenty of useful experience from quality training and professional games."

Shift of training models

Chinese top-notch tennis players are mostly the products of a three-tier state-supported training system consisting of sports academies, provincial teams and the national team. Many experts have attributed China's breakthroughs in women's tennis to a new path of sending young players abroad to participate in all top professional tournaments. It is a strategy aimed at achieving good results in the Olympics, but one which has led to China's top tennis players matching the best in the world in terms of frequency of games and training intensity.

Between 1996 and 2000 the Chinese tennis team drafted and implemented an Olympic strategy of "nurturing top players and making women's doubles the breakthrough event." During this period, a group of young players, including Li Ting, Sun Tiantian, Li Na and Peng Shuai, were selected as the potential talents and frequently sent abroad for training and competition.

Sun said, "Intensive participation in professional competitions holds the key to our quick progress as it has helped us to understand adversaries better and learn advanced training methods."