Olympic gold medallists Li Ting/Sun Tiantian held no attempt to withdraw from the US$500,000 China Open tennis tournament held on September 10-26, according to Chinese team leader Wang Guanghe here on Monday.

"Li and Sun will surely play the women's doubles event of the China Open," Wang told Xinhua through a phone interview.

The doubles pair, who took China's first ever tennis gold at the Athens Olympics, has been reckoned two of China's best hopes.

Modern Express reported Monday that Li Ting/Sun Tiantian had decided to quit the women's doubles event of the China Open tennis tournament, while Li Ting would play the women's singles with a wild card.

Li had told the Jiangsu-based newspaper that she and Sun made the decision considering that they had not trained together for a period after the Games when the Chinese duo were busy with varieties of celebrations, according to the report.

Wang thought the report a result of a misunderstanding of the Modern Express' interviewer when Li talked about the 25,000 US ITF Challenge instead of the WTA tour.

The ITF Challenge, held from September 13 to 19, is just one tournament of the total five in the China Open which also includes ATP tour, WTA tour, ATP Challenge, ITF under-18 tournament.

"We warmly welcome the media to clap their eyes on Chinese tennis and all the tennis matches held in China, but hope that they could make their reports more accurate," said Wang.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2004)