Zheng/Xu pin hopes on making Olympic berth

Paris, May 29: Zheng Saisai and Xu Yifan hope to stay as long as they can at the French Open while the ninth-seeded Chinese tennis women's doubles pair vies for a berth at this summer's Rio Olympic Games. Zheng and Xu, ranked 21st and 23rd, respectively, in current WTA doubles standings released before the French Open, advanced to the women's doubles quarter-fils on Sunday after beating Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia/Mirja Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 7-5, 7-5, reports Xinhua. The duo next play the winners between fourth seeds Timea Babos/Yaroslava Shvedova and Russian pair Margarita Gasparyan/Svetla Kuznetsova. If through, Zheng and Xu will earn 780 points, and if not, an increase of 430 points will also do much to their rankings. According to the Olympic qualifying rules announced by the Intertiol Tennis Federation (ITF), top 10 players in doubles, partnering any one with a ranking, will be awarded direct passage to this summer's Olympics, which is impossible to Zheng and Xu. IANS