中国网球公开赛(Zhōngguó wăngqiú gōngkāisài) The China Tennis Open Tournament was held on October 2nd, 2009. During the China Open women's singles tournament going into the quarter finals, a Chinese tennis player, 彭帅(Péng Shuài) Peng Shuai became a 焦点(jiāodiăn) focus when she defeated the former world number 1, Maria Sharapova from Russia. The 2005 Berlin Tennis Open, was their first chance to compete against each other. 彭帅(Péng Shuài) Peng Shuai was 横扫(héngsăo) swept away by Sharapova with the scores 6:2 and 6:1. This time, 彭帅(Péng Shuài) Peng Shuai completely 爆冷门(bàolěngmén) produced an unexpected win and won at the scores 6:2 and 6:4. So she has become regarded as a dark horse in tennis circle.

冷门(lěngmén) An Unexpected Winner

The Origin and Meaning of the Phrase
The word 冷门(lěngmén), an unexpected winner, first appeared in Casinos. When people bet chips, they usually chose the most promising one. When somebody chose one that nobody cared about, people call it 冷门(lěngmén). If the underdog achieved a victory in the end , it was called 爆冷门(bàolěngmén), a dark horse popping up. 爆(bào) means exploding literally, but here it means unexpected. 冷(lěng) means cold and 门(mén) means door.

The Usage of the Phrase
1. 今天浐灞队击败了国安队，真是爆冷门。    
    Jīntiān Chănbà duì jībài le Guó'ān duì, zhēn shì bào lěngmén.
    Today, Chanba defeated the Guo'an, which is a real dark horse upset.
2. 巴西足球队打中国足球队，中国队胜肯定是冷门，但是如果真的胜了巴西队，那就是爆冷门了。
        
    Bāxī zúqiú duì dă Zhōngguó zúqiú duì, Zhōngguó duì shèng kěndìng shì lěnmén, dànshì
    rúguŏ zhēn de shèng le Bāxī duì, nà jiù shì bàolěngmén le.
    When the Chinese soccer team and Brazil soccer team competed against each other.
    China is certainly  the underdog, but if they beat the Brazilian team, it will produce an
    unexpected winner.

生词(shēngcí) Vocabulary:    
网球(wăngqiú): n tennis    
焦点(jiāodiăn): n focus    
彭帅(Péng Shuài): n name of a famous Chinese tennis player    
横扫(héngsăo): v to sweep away    

More Newsletters