Zheng Jie and Jelena Jankovic in ANTA TV commercial

I like your theory of jj’s decline in performance, but I believe you make a fair point.

I’m too sceptical on the credibility and consumer appeal of this ad; it’s riddled with irony. First of all it’s rather incongruous, I believe to place Jie and Jelena together, despite the fact that they are the only two athletes representing the brand and also perhaps because I know the majority of the sane tennis community, of course minus fans of the budding Chinese tennis player, would not consider Zheng to be a ‘star’, or at least not in the context with which Jankovic was labelled as too, in the ad. I know Jelena has been plagued by inconsistency this year, but she was a former world NO.1 and one does hope that the young sporting brand would not categorise Jelena, a player of such calibre with Zheng and her relatively inferior career resume. And of course that infamous, ‘keep moving’ slogan, which needless to mention is impossible if, as Marija mentioned, the shoes can barely get you anywhere across the court.

I consider Zheng a tennis star as well. Of course, her career resume is much poorer than Jankovic’s, but don’t forget how famous she is in China, she has also marked a history in tennis in some way. Therefore, I don’t find the pairing of JJ and Zheng in this ad incongruous.

Don’t forget that Zheng has won two Grand Slam doubles titles in her career, while JJ has won one (the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 2007). Zheng is as much a star in my eyes as JJ is and as you said Marija, she is hugely famous in China.

I suppose in the context of the Chinese and South east Asian universe who are more familiar and updated about her successes, will not perceive it as an alarming subject, but from my corner of the galaxy, we would just go: ‘Zheng who?’ or perhaps we are more ignorant, either way, we have womenstennisblog.com to update us…!