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China's women's tennis set to improve in 2006
By Zhao Rui (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-12 07:19
China's women tennis players have successfully remained in the limelight in
2005 after the Olympic gold at Athens, but the country's leading official is
taking more measures to strengthen the team for the future.
Kim Clijsters of
Belgium (L) kisses Zheng Jie of China after their match at the Champions
Challenge 2006 in Hong Kong January 5, 2006. Clijsters won 3-6 6-2 6-2.
[Reuters] | "We have to make changes as the team is facing a bottleneck," said Sun
Junfang, director of the Administrative Centre of Tennis. "We did make some
progress but the training we have done is not enough to lift the players into
the top 20."
In the newly-released competition schedule for 2006, the squad are set to
play in more high-profile events, including all four Grand Slams, seven WTA Tier
I and seven Tier II Opens.
"In 2006, we will be focusing on big games rather than Tier IV or Challengers
that we played in last year."
Led by tennis maverick Peng Shuai, China's female squad had unexpected
success in 2005 which is highlighted by the jump in rankings. Four Chinese women
players made it into top 100 for the first time as Peng reached a record 31 with
Li Na two spots behind.
But problems exist. Hampered by the lack of ability to win big events,
Chinese players had to play in a high number of tournaments, which contributed
to frequent injuries.
Despite of the National Games, which gave her a two month break from the
Tour, Zheng Jie, No 47, competed in as many as 25 tournaments in nine months,
including WTA Opens and Challenges.
By any measure, most of the top players would not take on such an
action-packed schedule. World No 1 Lindsay Davenport competed in 16 WTA Opens,
No 4 Maria Sharapova competed in 15 while Mary Pierce, who rocked the sport with
her strong comeback last year to finish No 5 in the world, participated in just
14 competitions.
"Reaching only the second or third rounds of each event
is definitely not enough for those who want to make the top 30," said Sun. "We
need to win more points in top competitions and this is the only way to make
China a steady team in the world."
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