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Women's tennis team aiming for aces This year has been an unexpectedly smashing one for the dark horses in the Chinese women's tennis team, with a surprising Olympic champion emerging on the Athens tennis courts in August.
But Chinese girls are already aiming at the higher goal of Grand Slam events - and undergoing high-intensity training in Jiangmen, southern China's Guangdong Province, for next year's Australia Open. Li Ting and Sun Tiantian were virtually unknown before the Olympic Games, but this year pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history, seizing the first tennis gold for China from their powerful European and American counterparts. Big names were seen everywhere in Athens as thirteen of the world's top 20 women players entered the tournament, including Grand Slam winners Venus Williams, Martina Navratilova, Anastasia Myskina and Mary Pierce. But it was Li and Sun who belied all the pre-game forecasts by overpowering their first sensational rivals, the Williams/Chanda Rubin pair, to mark an unbelievable victory in their first Olympic match. "After the first round, we knew we could beat other top players," said Sun. "For others, the results might be seen as upsets, but for us, they were quite possible." With the confidence they gained in the first round, the explosive pair continued to take the scalps of high seeds including No 4 seeds Rennae Stubbs and Alicia Molik of Australia in the quarter-finals and No 7 seeds Patricia Tarabini and Paola Suarez of Argentina in the semi-finals before easing past the Spanish pair Conchita Martinez and Virginia Pascual, to the delight of millions of Chinese sports fans. The win has gone down in the history of Chinese tennis. No player had before won a world championship nor a place in the world's top 50. "This is not only a breakthrough moment but also a new starting point for Chinese tennis," Li said. Overall improvement Their victory is a reflection of the overall improvement of China's tennis in the past few years. The Tennis Administrative Centre, the governing body of the sport in China, has been putting increasing efforts into the sport, including inviting foreign coaches and sponsoring players to participate in world-level tournaments. In 2004, Chinese tennis players competed in more than 30 events around the world. The international tour got off to an impressive start at the season-opening Australian Open, as Zheng Jie and Yan Zi got through to the quarter-finals, the best result for China in four Grand Slams, while their younger teammate, 17-year-old Sun Shengnan, with Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei, claimed the women's doubles title in the junior group. In-form Zheng carried on her charge in the French Open by making history on the clay courts of Roland Carros, reaching the last 16, the best result ever achieved by a Chinese mainland player. Zheng then reached the last eight with Yan in the women's doubles at Wimbledon. On home soil, Li Na, the 2001 World Universiade double gold winner who came back from retirement, clinched the first WTA tournament title for China in October in Guangzhou. Earlier in the inaugural China Open in Beijing, Li once pushed reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kutznesova of Russia to the limit by holding match point before the Russian converted the match in a second-round confrontation. The Chinese still have clear objectives. "Being the No 1 in the Olympics does not mean we are at the No 1 level in the world," said Li after winning her Olympic gold medal. "We know the real position of China's tennis and our win today cannot represent tennis power in China." Teammate Zheng, who was beaten twice this year by Russian powerstroker Nadia Petrova by big margins, echoed Li's thoughts, suggesting that China still has a long way to go to catch up. "There is a big gap between the world's top 20 players and Chinese tennis players," said Zheng. "They are obviously stronger than us in many aspects." The centre has appointed a new headcoach, Jiang Hongwei, replacing Yu Liqiao, the coach of champion pair Li and Sun. "A gold medal in the Olympic Games is not enough to be able to say China has reached a world level," said Jiang, coach of former top players Li Fang and Yi Jingqian. "It is a single's ranking that reflects the country's tennis strength. "My first target is to lift my players into the world's top 30 singles." Zheng, ranking 67th, together with world No 79th Li Na, and the pair Li and Sun, who are 10th in the WTA doubles world rankings, have already qualified for the Australian Open. Having made the last 16 in 2004, Li and Sun now vow to go further, hoping to reach the quarter-finals this time. The centre has invited Desmond Tyson, coach of Australian doubles sensation Todd Woodbridge for a 20-day instruction on the pair. Jiang said he will send his players to play all four Grand Slam tournaments in 2005. Director of the centre Sun Jinfang said they will continue to carry out the so-called "internationalized" strategy to support the team to take part in overseas tournaments. Lacklustre male players It is another story on the men's side, with no one yet winning an ATP title or even having played in a Grand Slam tournament throughout the year. After a brief shining moment in the 2003 Heineken Open in Shanghai, when Zhu Benqiang and Zeng Shaoxuan claimed a surprising runner-up in men's doubles, the squad did nothing of notice in 2004. During the China Open, Zhu, six times national champion, and China's No 2 Wang Yu, both bowed out in the first round. Youth player Lu Hao managed to get into the second round but was soon routed by world No 3 and eventual winner Marat Safin. Zhang Xiaoning, vice-director of the centre, said: "Men's tennis is set to be a focal point after the women's breakthrough in the Olympic Games. "We will foster more opportunities for men's players in the coming years with reference to the method of development for women's tennis." The sport has certainly become more popular in China thanks to efforts to bring in top-level tennis tournaments. For the next three years, the elite ATP Masters Cup will be held in the financial hub of Shanghai. The city has successfully hosted several tennis events, including the 2002 Masters Cup. In Beijing, the China Open is expected to become a major excitement for local tennis fans. The city, the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games, is also bidding to host the year-end WTA Championships. |
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