Fresh from victory in the Stockholm Open on Sunday, China's Zheng Jie has surged to a career-best world ranking of 27th yesterday. She joins compatriot and Wimbledon quarter-finalist Li Na, who has reached a career-best of 20th, in the top 30.

Zheng defeated former French Open winner and top seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia to clinch her third career title, helping her soar eight places from 35. It is the first time China's No 2 has broken into the world top 30.

Although team-mate Li Na, the second seed behind Myskina, was upset by Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria in the Stockholm Open quarter-finals, Li was able to break into world top 20 for the first time, another landmark moment in her career after reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last month.

Zheng now looks very likely to be listed as a seeded player alongside Li in the US Open starting later this month if she keeps her form. Li became the first Chinese to be seeded at a Grand Slam tournament when she was seeded 28th in Wimbledon.

Another four Chinese are ranked in the world top 100 - Peng Shuai (57), Yan Zi (84), Sun Tiantian (93) and Yuan Meng (94).

On Sunday, Zheng defeated Myskina in the final of the Stockholm Open 6-4, 6-1 in a rain-delayed final, which resulted in a change of venue.

The finalists had met twice previously with the Russian prevailing on both occasions winning 6-2, 7-5 in the quarter-finals in Doha in 2004, and 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1 in the opening round of Dubai earlier this year.

"This was a very important victory for me," said Zheng, who was presented the Victoria trophy, named after the Crown Princess of Sweden, by tennis legend Bjorn Borg. "It was a great pleasure to receive my award from Bjorn Borg. I didn't know he would be here!"

"I thought I played really well today, but Zheng gets everything back and doesn't miss so there's not much you can do," said Myskina, who has been the runner-up here in both her appearances, last year to Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik. Myskina could have made a top 10 return with the title here, but instead she remains at No 11.

Zheng previously won singles titles at Hobart in 2005 and Estoril in 2006. Later, Zheng teamed up with Yan Zi to try and add the doubles title to their Australian Open and Wimbledon crowns.

But they were beaten 6-0, 4-6, 2-6 by Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic and Jarmila Gaidosova of Slovakia.

The final, which began at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium venue, was moved to the indoor Royal Tennis Hall (the site of the men's Stockholm Open tournament) after heavy rain came down shortly after the match got underway. Within an hour the players and crowded had moved to the back-up facility just a few blocks away.

(China Daily August 15, 2006)