China's doubles players face uphill job at Olympics, says tennis coach
4/8/2008 17:05
The women's doubles has improved rapidly and the Chinese women's players
need to do their best to defend the title they had won four years ago, said
China's tennis head coach Jiang Hongwei today.
Chinese tennis moved into a
fast lane since Li Ting/Sun Tiantian's epic women's doubles triumph at the
Athens Games, notably Zheng Jie making the last four in this year's Wimbledon
and claiming two Grand Slam doubles titles with long-time partner Yan Zi in
2006.
"Women's doubles changed a lot since and the WTA has raised the ranking
points and the prize money for the event, so more and more players get involved
and the rivalry has become tight," said Jiang at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre
where the Olympic tennis event will be held during Aug. 10-17.
The Chinese
women's team went to North China's Tianjin for final assault towards the Beijing
Games since the players finished the Wimbledon competition.
The
three-week-long camp was completely behind-door as the Chinese team needed to
get away from the media hype. "When we came back from the Wimbledon, we were
just stunned by the noisy media at the airport. The players need to calm down
ahead of the Games," Jiang said. "Keep a cool mind helps shrug off the
pressure."
China's tennis girls suffered a major setback in 2007 when Zheng's
left ankle was badly injured in the French Open while former top 20 player Li Na
was hurt in the rib.
The two players were rested for almost half a year
before they tested their form early this season.
Li claimed the Gold Coast
title in January while Zheng joined Yan again to make two consecutive finals
ahead of the Australian Open and claimed the Sydney title, their 11th of their
career.
"We posed challenge towards other duos four years ago, but now the
situation is reversed. Zheng/Yan is under the spotlight while other players are
lurking around, so the competition will be a hard-fought one."
Zheng and Yan
are looked at as the heaviest favorites of China in tennis event and the host
country also need them to fuel the medal drive to charge the top of the medal
tables.
Chuang Chia-Jung and Chan Yung-Jan from Chinese Taipei, ranked
seventh and eighth separately in the doubles, are the most consistent duo in the
top 20 doubles players. The Taipei duet, who kept a 3-0 record over Zheng and
Yan in 2007, will be expected to cause trouble for the Chinese
contingent.
"It was not only the Chinese Taipei team, many other teams are
hard to beat. It's possible for anybody to win the doubles title."
The
doubles event has a 32-team field with America's Williams sisters and Lindsay
Davenport/Liezel Huber, Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova/Dinara Safina and Elena
Vesnina/Vera Zvonareva, and Spain's Medina Garrigues/Ruano Pascual also eyeing
the medals.
Xinhua
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