Career
One of China's most successful women's doubles specialists, Zhang has won some thirty international titles, the vast majority of them in partnership with Yang Wei, during the first decade of the 21st century. They have shared world dominance almost equally with their compatriot adversaries Gao Ling and Huang Sui. One or the other pair has captured all of the BWF World Championships held since 2000, with Zhang and Yang winning in both 2005 and 2007 by defeating Gao and Huang in the finals. Zhang and Yang also emerged victorious at the 2004 Olympics in Athens by besting their rivals in a closely contested gold medal match . Conversely, Gao and Huang have had the upper hand in three finals (2003), 2004, 2006) at the venerable All-England Championships. This tourney has been something of an anomaly for Zhang as she has reached the women's doubles final there six times (four with Yang and twice, earlier, with Wei Yili) without winning.
In 2008 Zhang helped China to secure its sixth consecutive Uber Cup (women's world team championship), and won the Swiss, Thailand, and Malaysia Open women's doubles titles with Yang. At the Beijing Olympics where they were top seeded, however, Zhang and Yang were upset in the quarterfinals by Japan's Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna. The event was eventually won by another, younger Chinese pair, Du Jing and Yu Yang, perhaps marking a changing of the guard in the Chinese dynasty.
According to some reports, Zhang Jiewen will quit competitive badminton after the 2008 Summer Olympics, when she will marry Malaysian men's badminton doubles star Choong Tan Fook. She is currently coaching with him in a badminton facility in Guangzhou.
Read more about this topic: Zhang Jiewen
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)