By Yu Yilei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-01 09:45

Australian coach Sandon Stolle approached several Chinese women's tennis players during warm-up training for the just-concluded Australian Open, telling them that his good friend, Serbian doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic, was looking for a mixed doubles partner.

Sun Tiantian, the 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist, and whom Stolle coached in 2006, was first to respond.

The 27-year-old from Henan Province had a relatively light schedule in Melbourne after being knocked out of the grand slam tournament's singles qualification round. Apart from women's doubles, on which she focused most of her attention, she thought she might "win some extra prize money for shopping" by playing the mixed doubles.

Two weeks later, the unprepared Sun received much more than she expected after paring with Zimonjic to defeat the Indian duo Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in the final at Rod Laver Arena.

The victory gave Sun her first grand slam trophy and made her the third Chinese grand slam title winner after Zheng Jie and Yan Zi who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon women's doubles titles in 2006.

More importantly, it gave Sun a big confidence boost ahead of August's Beijing Olympics, where Sun is eager to defend her doubles title

"It is such a wonderful start to the Olympic year," she said.

Since her landmark victory in Athens, Sun delivered a solid performance in the women's tour by winning the WTA singles title in 2006 and also reaching No 77 in the world rankings in March 2007.

However, she was overshadowed by her teammate Li Na who became the first Chinese to reach the quarterfinals in a grand slam event, as well as the duo of Zheng and Yan.

The retirement of her former champion partner Li Ting has made things difficult for Sun, and she has struggled to find a consistent doubles partner since 2006.

She has so far won 11 women's doubles titles plus another eight final appearances with six partners.

After testing different partners, the Chinese camp decided to allow Sun to partner with Peng Shuai, a singles specialist who ranked No 31 in the world at the end of last year.

She has set her sights on an Olympic gold medal in Beijing.

"I hope I can be happy there. If I am playing in a good mood, I will be able to give it my best, just like I did in Athens."