Chinese tennis stars Zheng Saisai and Xu Yifan. (Photo : Getty Images)
The ninth-seeded Chinese pair of Zheng Saisai and Xu Yifan advanced in the quarterfinals of the Women's Doubles competitions in the 2016 French Open on Sunday after they defeated the duo of Serbia's Aleksandra Krunić and Croatia's Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5.
Zheng and Xu, who are currently ranked 21st and 23rd respectively in the just released WTA doubles rankings, survived two hard-fought sets to turn back the tough challenge of their unseeded opponents to push through onward the next round.
They next face the Russian tandem of Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the last eight of the said division. The Russians defeated the fourth-seeded team of Hungary's Timea Babos and Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova to gain the right to meet the Chinese in the quarters.
Zheng and Xu are also pushing for a berth in the coming Rio Olympics this summer and a win in the quarterfinals will boost their chances of accumulating enough points to qualify, Xinhuanet reported.
If the pair beats Gasparyan and Kuznetsova, they will be set to earn 780 points in the process while only 430 points can be gained should they lose.
The ITF announced that of the 32 berths in the Rio Games this summer, the top 10 doubles teams will be given direct qualification while 14 tandems with the highest combined rankings will follow. Eight wildcard duos will then round out the Olympic qualifiers.
As of the moment Zheng and Xu, ranked 63rd and 233rd in the world, are not part of the top 10 highest-ranked teams. During the 2012 London Olympics, the highest combined ranking of a directly qualified team was 102nd.
"We really don't know how high the required ranking is to make sure an Olympic berth, so we just keep fighting to our limit to vie for more possible points," Zheng said, as per New Kerala.
"We've made a lot of efforts this season since aiming to qualify for the Olympic tennis tournament. Some time Xu and I even gave up some singles play to make our doubles possible," she added.
Meanwhile, her partner, Xu, expressed her hopes with regards to their goal of making it through to the Olympics.
"I found it fun playing mixed doubles which I'd never tried before," said Xu. "And also I think the mixed experience can help me improve skills in general doubles play, which may benefit the efforts of Saisai and I for Olympic berths."
