HONG KONG: The air electric with excitement, more than 3,000 people braved yesterday's chilly weather to watch one of Asia's biggest lineups of tennis stars.

Despite the mercury's dipping below 13 degrees Celsius, a near-capacity crowd bundled up in overcoats was on hand at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic, cheering on a heavily favored Team Asia Pacific.

Following Team Asia Pacific's Ayumi Morita's 6-2, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Vera Zvonareva, the crowd cheered the Asia Pacific team leader Zheng Jie through a neck-and-neck first set against Maria Sharapova, with Zheng winning the tie breaker 7-6 (7-5).

Zheng played with tenacity and attacked Sharapova's serve, but the steeled Russian came back strong with a series of aggressive plays taking the second set 6-4, to capture the match with a 6-2 win.

"(Zheng) played very well. Early on she controlled the points at the beginning and I was gettimg pulled into playing her game," Sharapova said after her win.

Zheng said that it indeed was her game plan for dealing with her bigger opponent, but admitted her concentration slipped in the second set, giving Sharapova a break.

Team Asia Pacific ladies will not advance to the gold group finals.

Tonight's singles matches will be Team Americas' Gisela Dulko, Venus Williams and Michael Chang facing off against Team Europe's Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Stefan Edberg.

The Hong Kong tournament features four teams with three players each - representing Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific - in singles and mixed doubles play.

(HK Edition 01/07/2010 page1)