Player of the week: Venus Williams / Jie Zheng

5 times Wimbledon champion Venus Williams has been the best player on the London grass. She has won her 7th Grand Slam title without dropping a set during the whole tournament. Maybe she had an easy way, as didn't have to face any seeded player till the semis, but she had to overcome WTA #5 Elena Dementieva in the semis and her sister Serena, WTA #6, in the final. She showed once more that her powerful serve and her great volley really suit the grass courts. Furthermore, she also captured the dobles title along with her sister Serena, which is the 7th Grand Slam doubles title for them.


But this week the great performance of Chinese Jie Zheng must be remarked. She entered the Main Draw thanks to an invitation, as she had dropped in the rankings due to an injury in late 2007. And she made good profit of it, as she advanced to the semifinals, becoming the first Chinese ever to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. On her way, she defeated great players such as 30th seed Dominika Cibulkova, 18th seed Nicole Vaidisova, 15th seed Agnes Szavay and she caused a big upset beating World's #1 Ana Ivanovic by 6/1 6/4. Only Serena Williams was able to stop her. But if her performance on court was brilliant, her behaviour off court is exemplar. Zheng announced she was going to donate her portion of the prize money to victims of the Chinese earthquake in her own Sichuan province in May, which killed over 60,000 people. Her humanity makes her worth this player of the week award.