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Watch out for the Chinese

Kalyan Ashok

— PHOTO: K. Gopinathan

BRIGHT FUTURE: Coach Martin Fassati, who is seen with the doubles duo Shengnan Sun (left) and Chunmei Ji, says the Chinese players are going to make it big.

BANGALORE: Barely 10 hours before Zi Yan knocked out top-seeded Jelena Jankovic in the Canara Bank Bangalore Open on Friday night, Martin Fassati, the Czech coach of the Chinese doubles pair Chunmei Ji and Shengnan Sun sounded a warning, “Just watch out for the Chinese, they are going to come in a big way.”

How prophetic he was! The chirpy Chinese Yan ran circles around Jankovic with her consistent returns. Though Jankovic had a problem as she was nursing a shoulder injury, one had to admire the way Yan played, chasing down every ball.

The Bangalore Open, in many ways, has been a success story for the Chinese girl. The Chinese pairs of Shuai Peng and Tiantian Sun squared off for a semifinal clash against teammates Ji and Shengnan. Tennis is indeed taking huge strides in our neighbouring country.

Doubles gold

If one looks closely at China’s rise in the game, what really spurred it on was the Olympic doubles gold at Athens won by Ting Li and Tian Tian Sun. The triumph of their doubles combination prodded the China Tennis Association to go into top gear for the development of the game.

In the past four years, the results are quite evident with players such as Li Na, Shuai Peng and Zi Yan, moving up the ladder of world rankings. Li Na is the top star, ranked 23 and a quarterfinalist at the Wimbledon in 2006, which has remained so far the best performance by a Chinese player. Zi Yan, the surprise package of the Bangalore Open, is ranked 58 and should move up in a big way after her show here. Peng’s display against Venus Williams had many in the Stadium wondering “who on earth was that?”

Peng had trained under former French Open champion Michael Chang in the early part of 2007. Chang felt she had great potential.

“Yes, that’s their important goal,” said Fassati. “There are so many players back in China as good as anyone you would have seen here.”

Good baseliners

The coach said: “They (Chinese) are very good baseliners, but they need to move up and finish off points. They need to evolve an allround game.”

On the Chinese system, Fasatti said: “They are moving ahead systematically. Everything is happening with good support from the CTA.”

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