Even for the most diehard Chinese tennis fans, the names of the country's male tennis players are not familiar.
But after years of obscurity, Chinese men's tennis players are bouncing back from obscurity and are again making their way onto the world stage.
"Our men's players are improving in ATP tournaments," said Xie Zhao, head coach of China's men's tennis team. "For sure, they are not able to advance as well as the women's team, but I am pretty satisfied with their play this season."
Despite a wide ability gap between the Chinese men and the world's top players on the tour, the Chinese players have made sound progress this year, thanks to steady support from officials and sponsors.
Compared with their positions last year at the China Open when top player Wang ranked around 500th in the world rankings and his teammate Sun out in 700th, the duo have made it into the top 400 this year with Sun at 356 and Wang at 399.
According to Xie, the national team players have competed in 18 ATP tournaments so far this season while they were only able to play two or three tournaments five years ago.
In February, the 22-year-old Sun fought from the qualifiers to the second round of the Florida Open, the best ever result after the doubles' runner-up finish achieved by Zeng Shaoxuan and Zhu Benqiang at the Shanghai Heineken Open in 2003.
"The only way to improve ourselves is to train and go abroad to play in tournaments with top players," said Xie.
Wang, who entered the second round of the China Open yesterday after brushing aside Luka Gregorc of Slovenia, echoed his point of view.
"The gap between the world's top players and us is becoming smaller," said Wang. "I am able to confront many foreign players on an equal footing, my victory (at China Open) just proved it."
Talent drought
The peak period of China's men's tennis came in the early 1990's when Pan Bing ranked 180th in the world rankings, the best ever for Chinese male players. Another Chinese player Xia Jiaping previously ranked 235. The singles gold medal won by Pan at the Beijing Asian Games in 1990, was seen as the swansong for the team.
"To be honest, we suffered an embarrassing talent drought after their (Pan and Xia's) retirement," said Xie. "But the situation is getting better since five teenagers with potential joined in the team.
"Besides, China's women's doubles gold medal at the Athens Olympics also promoted the sport in China."
Although China's rising men's players are eyeing the world top level, the more immediate task is for them to regain their ground in Asian tennis.
"Our first goal is to win a medal at the Asian Games next year in Doha, Qatar, as we failed to win any medals in the last few Games," said Xie. "It will be very hard for us to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, so we hope to achieve something of note and a possible wildcard at the 2008 Games."
Recently many Asian rivals have improved on their tennis including Chinese Taipei and South Korea, not to mention Thailand and India, whose players have become a steady force on the pro tour.
Chinese Taipei's Wang Yeu-Tzuoo elevated to 99th, becoming the third Asian to enter the world top 100 this season after Thai Paradorn Srichaphan (53) and Lee Hyung-taik (93) of South Korea. His doubles partner Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei also got an encouraging ranking of 129th.
(China Daily September 14, 2005)
