There is good news and bad news for Chinese tennis pairs at the WTA Qatar Open.

Athens Olympic champions Li Ting and Sun Tiantian have eased into the women's doubles finals while Australian Open winners Zheng Jie and Yan Zi were stopped in their tracks in the semi-finals.

It took the Olympic champions only one and a half hours to wind up their match against Russia's top duo E. Likhovtseva and V. Zvonareva 6-3, 6-4.

This has been their best match since winning the Olympic doubles crown in Athens in 2004.

Second seeded Zheng Jie and Yan Zi have not been as successful as their compatriots, held back by Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama and D. Hantuchova of the Czech Republic.

The multi-national duo started strong, winning the first set 6-3. China returned with 6-3 in the second set to tie things up. But the third set saw the Chinese slump again as they lost the decider 6-3 and eventually the match after a little over two hours.

(CRI English?March 4, 2006)