With Yan Zi out of the WTA first round after being beaten by Russia's Dinara Safina yesterday and Zheng facing a tough first-round task today against another Russian, fifth seed Nadia Petrova, Chinese players are counting on the doubles to bring some excitement for local fans at the ongoing China Open.
"Actually I played well today. The strong wind caused a number of unforced errors. But I feel good, I can play better in the doubles," said Yan after her 6-3, 6-2 loss to Safina at the Beijing Tennis Centre.
"Now I will pay more attention to my doubles match with Zheng, and we will try to play as many matches as possible," she said. "The more matches we play, the better we will be."
As the fourth seed of the women's doubles tournament, the pair, together with second seed and 2004 Athens Olympic gold medallists Li Ting/Sun Tiantian, will vie for the title, facing major rivals like top-seeded Nicole Pratt of Australia/Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and third seeds Maria Sharapova/Vera Zvonareva of Russia.
Both Zheng/Yan and Li/Sun face lower-ranked pairs in the first two rounds and will not meet the higher ranked opponents until the semi-finals.
But they hesitated to predict how far they will go as some fans hope for an all-Chinese final.
"The draw seems favourable for us. But the most important thing for us is to play match by match," said Yan.
"We have tough opponents here and we have to dig deep if we want to win the title," said Li.
But fans have pinned the title hope on them.
As in singles competitions, China lags far behind. Local players have to rely on wild cards to compete with the world's top players.
The memory of the thrilling night still remains when Sun/Li stood out as surprising gold winners in the 2004 Athens Olympics, bringing home the first ever tennis gold medal.
Moreover, Zheng/Yan and Li/Sun unprecedentedly entered quarter-finals and the fourth round of this year's Australian Open respectively.
"I am looking forward to another outstanding performance in China Open," said Li, who believes playing in top tennis events at home will help them improve and make greater achievements in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"We spent half of the year competing in foreign countries. We have to play in 20 to 30 WTA tour events. China Open is a big event and China seldom hosts such a high-level event. This time we should make good use of the home advantage," said Zheng.
(China Daily September 21, 2004)
