Women to rule at Doha tennis arena

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-17 09:57

In the women's doubles, Chinese tennis players will also call the shots as China boasts the top two pairs in Asia. Zheng Jie/Yan Zi, the Australian Open and Wimbledon champions, finished in the second place on the WTA doubles Race after a glamorous season and became the first Chinese to compete in the year-ending WTA Championships in early November.

While Li Ting/Sun Tiantian, the Olympic champions in 2004, have slumped sharply after the Athens Olympics, they still remain the second strongest duo behind their teammates in Asia.

With the undoubted supremacy in singles and doubles, the women's team title, which is to be competed ahead of the individual events and feature two singles matches and one doubles match, will possibly become the best opportunity for Chinese women to taste the flavor of gold in a reminiscent mood.

In 1986 Asian Games, Chinese women players grabbed the team gold from the South Koreans. That was the first tennis gold and sole team gold for China in Asian Games chronicle.

The sole threat in women's field will be the Japanese, but they all had a hard time this season except sidelined Ai Sugiyama.

Other medal contenders may come from Thailand spearheaded by Tamarine Tanasugarn and India led by Sania Mirza.

By contrast the Chinese men players, who are much less competitive in Asia, have to face the music for the Doha Games.

Chinese top four, namely Yu Xinyuan, Wang Yu, Sun Peng and Zeng Shaoxuan, can only be found beyond the 400th on the ATP rankings.

They are just hoping for a medal in the doubles event, revealed men's team head coach Xie Zhao during the Sept. 11-17 China Open in Beijing.

The China Open ATP tournament, where the top Asian players are attracted, can be seen as the rehearsal to the upcoming Asian Games tennis competition.

The ATP event saw all 18 Chinese qualifiers including Sun Peng sink at the qualifying round and wildcards Yu Xinyuan and Wang Yu suffer embarrassing first-round exits. While Thais, Japanese and South Koreans redemonstrated their prowess in Asia at the tournament.

In Doha men's singles, Thai Paradorn Srichaphan and South Korean Lee Hyung-Taik, the finalists four years ago, will most ¡¡probably meet again in this year's edition.

At Busan Games, Srichaphan, who won both meetings against Lee in the ATP tour, beat the stubborn South Korean to win the singles title.

Chinese Taipei's Wang Yeu-Tzuoo and Lu Yen-Hsun are among the medal contenders.

In men's doubles, defending champions Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi from India are still the top favorites.

The men's team and mixed doubles are up for grabs with the powers such as India, Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei.