Li Na and Zheng Jie celebrated their Wimbledon breakthrough in London on Wednesday when they became the first Chinese players to reach the third round at the All England Club.

Peng Shuai joined them in the third round yesterday after dishing out an impressive 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) straight sets win over the Israeli 20th seed Shahar Peer.

Li, seeded 27, defeated Meilen Tu of the US 6-2, 6-4, while Zheng Jie won a tough three-setter against the Czech Republic's Eva Birnerova 7-6 (8/6), 5-7, 6-3.

Both players said they are pleased with their second round victories.

"I played very good tennis today and it is a satisfying result for me," Li said.

"It was a very tough match for me," Zheng said. "She has powerful serves and a good backhand. But I am so happy because this is my best performance so far in Wimbledon."

Zheng joined the tournament in 2004 but was ousted in the first round.

All Chinese players skipped the tournament last year due to the National Games.

Playing at Wimbledon for the first time, Li, China's No.1, now faces former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian fifth seed, for a place in the last 16.

Zheng has an equally tough task, facing Belgian second seed Kim Clijsters.

Later yesterday, Sun Tiantian was unable to advance as she lost to Elena Likhovtseva of Russia 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.

China has six women in the top 100 and all of them were in the main draw here. By contrast, China's top tennis star, Wang Yu, is ranked at a humble 353.

"I think they're too skinny," Peng pointed out. "They need to get stronger. May be the men need to eat more."

The 20-year-old, who played the first round on her debut here in 2004, splits her time between Florida and China and is convinced the Olympic doubles gold medal success of Sun and Li Ting in Athens in 2004 will spur even more Chinese women to take up the game.

As it is, the ladies have exceeded their French Open performance.

Four Chinese girls made it through to the second round at Roland Garros earlier this month with Li surviving until the round of 32.

This year, there were six Chinese women in the main draw and their emergence has been noted by former world No.1 Martina Hingis.

"When I kind of moved away, it was still a lot of Russians. But now it seems like it's moving more to the East," Hingis commented.

Two of the Chinese contingent were beaten on Tuesday by French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, the world third seed, who beat Yuan Meng 6-0, 6-1, and Russian 30th seed Anna Chakvetadze who saw off Yan Zi 6-3, 6-2.

Li Na

Zheng Jie

Peng Shuai

(China Daily June 30, 2006)