There was a time when China's tennis player Li Fang headed for the Roland Carros alone in 1995. With no coaches and no teammates, she was ousted in the first round. Even the WTA officials found it hard to recall her face.

Today, with an overall improvement on women's tennis during the past ten years, eight Chinese women's players made their appearances at the WTA Tier Two China Open, the highest-level WTA event ever held in China.

World No 35 Li Na, who was the only Chinese to reach the second round last year in Beijing, returns this year along with world No 33 Peng Shuai and No 46 Zheng Jie. This is the first time that three Chinese players made it to the top 50.

Peng and Li Na entered the event automatically, while Zheng Jie and Sun Tiantian were given two wildcards for their berths in the singles main draw.

On the doubles' side, three Chinese pairs joined the doubles contest this week, including the Athens doubles' gold medallists Li Ting/Sun Tiantian, Zheng/Yan Zi and teenagers Sun Shengnan and Liu Wanting,

The country's best hope of progress at the Beijing Tennis Centre lies with Peng, who recently soared to 32 in the world, surpassing countrywoman Li Na's previous record-breaking No 33 to become the highest ranked player from China in Tour history.

Peng also had the pleasure of becoming the first Chinese woman to beat top 10 rivals. She triumphed past the then world No 8 Anastasia Myskina of Russia in the second round and brushed aside another Russian world No 10 Nadia Petrova in the quarter of the year's beginning event -- WTA Sydney.

With confidence gained at the French Open which saw her impressively push the world No 1 Lindsay Davenport, Peng ousted World No 3 Belgian Kim Clisjsters and No 8 Elena Dementieva of Russia in San Diego en route to China's first ever Tier I event semi-finals.

"China Open is a great chance for our Chinese women's players to compete with so many top players," Peng said. "I had some good games this season, and I hope to play at my level in front of home fans.

"I cannot say I've reached the same level with them, but I am not afraid of anyone."

Despite a fearless attitude, the Chinese girls are set to face a tougher-than-ever challenge at the Open.

World No 1 Maria Sharapova of Russia, along with Wimbledon champion Venus Williams and Australian Open winner Serena Williams, hold the top three seeds this year -- all aiming for the title at the US$585,000 event.

But World No 2 Lindsay Davenport announced her withdrawal from the event due to a back strain at the Wismilak International Open, where she won the 49th title of her career.

Li Na is expected to face Sharapova of Russia if she's able to overcome France's Tatiana Golovin in the second round, while Sun Tiantian faces a possible second round clash with World No 9 Serena Williams, who returns as the event's defending champion after winning her 25th career title on her 23rd birthday last year.

Despite holding a 21-6 record, the former world No 1 has suffered from a knee injury throughout the season and has been in a title jinx after the Australian Open.

Zheng Jie, who became the second Chinese to win a WTA title in Hobart earlier this year, plays against the event's sixth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro in the first round and is likely to meet the sizzling Venus Williams in the quarter-finals.

With Davenport quitting the event at the last moment, Peng Shuai would face off with Argentine Mariana Diaz-Olive in the second round on the second half of the draw.

Diaz-Olive was a surprising first-round winner against fourth seed Alicia Molik of Australia in a 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (7-4), 6-4 match yesterday.

In another first round action, Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama beat compatriot Akiko Morigami 7-6(7/3), 6-4

Earlier yesterday, China's doubles specialist Li Ting failed to earn her first round spot as she lost to Emma Laine of Finland 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the last match of the qualifiers.

Li Ting broke the serve twice in the first set, but it was her 26 unforced errors and six double faults, that ended her bid to the main draw.

(China Daily September 20, 2005)