Results tagged “tennis”

Last weekend, the finals of the China Tennis Grand Prix took place in Nanjing. It was the culmination of a week-long event, which was actually the culmination of several months of tennis played at multiple levels in cities across China.

Zeng Shaoxuan, a wildcard entry from China, upset Dudi Sela yesterday in the first round of the Shanghai Masters. Zeng, ranked 396th worldwide, defeated the 44th-ranked Israeli in an come from behind victory. Sela, who has reached a semifinal and two quarterfinals so far this season, started off strong with a five-game win string, but faltered through the second and third sets. Zeng said the enthusiasm of the crowd helped him win, and we cant' blame him: we imagine it was quite an uproar. Photo:Shanghai Daily

What's with superstar athletes dropping out of Shanghai sporting events? First Usain Bolt doesn't show up to the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, and now the number one ranked tennis star Roger Federer has pulled out of the Shanghai Masters event next month. Federer, citing fatigue, pulled out of both the Shanghai event and the Japan Open, but had some nice words of consolation for both cities, stating "I am disappointed that I have to withdraw from Tokyo and Shanghai as they are two of my favorite cities in the world and the fans have been great to me over the years." We're sad we have to miss out on yet another superstar coming to Shanghai. Photo: swampa @ flickr

The words "tennis powerhouse" are not generally associated with China, but the PRC has made great progress in recent years in terms of establishing itself as a rising star in the tennis world--witness Li Na coming in second at this month's Monterrey Open and Zheng Jie (pictured above) making it to the semifinals at Wimbledon last year.

It's not easy being the only male player of Chinese descent at a tennis tournament, but Taiwanese player, Lu Yen-Hsun (卢彦勋) doesn't seem to mind. He scored the first major upset on the men's side of the Australian Open yesterday. He defeated the number ten seed, David Nalbandian of Argentina, 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. In the 3rd round, the no. 61 player in the world will next play the no. 21 seed, Tommy Robredo from Spain. Regardless of what happens, this will be the best grand slam effort of Lu's career.

By Geoff Ng and Pete Chorba

History repeated itself again yesterday as top-seeded (and not top-ranked-anymore) Roger Federer lost his first round match at this year's Shanghai Masters Cup, currently going on at the Qizhong Stadium. This year-ending tennis event represents the gathering of the eight "best" players on the ATP Tour of the year for a fierce round-robin competition to earn not only the honor of winning the Masters Cup, but also a nice purse of $625,000.

Shanghaiist's sports editor, and founding editor of ChinaSportsToday.com, Maggie Rauch, speaks to Sufei of Sexy Beijing about tennis star Zheng Jie and gender testing. Part 1 of the series can be found here.

:

Another world-class tennis tournament, another semifinal appearance for a Chinese player. Li Na (李娜) pulled off a huge upset and kept China's tennis singles medal hopes alive when she beat Venus Williams (USA)—7-5, 7-5—Thursday night in Beijing. Li, ranked 42nd in the world, bested the Wimbledon champion and 8th ranked player in two sets.

One of the last sports to determine its Olympic matchups, tennis finally held its draw Thursday night at the Swissotel in Beijing. China's best shot at a tennis medal is on the women's side where, despite lacking a player among the top 25 in the world, it has the maximum four players, all with the potential to pull off upsets.

Three weeks before Beijing hosts the Olympics, two weeks after Zheng Jie stormed Wimbledon, the same week that Yao Ming returned to action with the Chinese national team and Sports Illustrated China puts on its cover a tennis player who hasn’t played a professional match in four years and never won a Grand Slam. Apparently in the magazine’s Olympics-run-up newsroom, great legs beat greatness.

Serena Williams put an end to Zheng Jie's Wimbledon run Thursday, winning 6-2 and 7-6 (5). Serena had little trouble with Zheng in the first set, but the second went to a tie break, which Serena started strong, going up 3-0 before Zheng fought back to make it 5-5. Serving the ball and down 5-6, Zheng showed a small crack in her otherwise steely composure when she double faulted into the net, handing victory to Serena, who will face her sister Venus in the final Saturday.

China Sports Today has a long story about Wimbledon's Chinese Cinderella story:

Chinese tennis player Zheng Jie is making history and showing some Olympic promise with her recent play at Wimbledon. First she shocked tournament top seed, world No. 1 and the sport's newest "It girl," Ana Ivanovic in straight sets in the third round. And yesterday, Zheng dispatched Hungary's Ana Szavay to become the second Chinese woman to make it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Zheng won in two sets, 6-3, 6-4, showing the same calm confidence she was praised for after her match with Ivanovic.

The International Olympic Committee has called on Beijing Games organisers to release detailed information about air quality gathered during an August trial when 1.3million cars were taken off the Chinese capital's roads.

There must be something strange in the air (literally), because this year's Tennis Masters Cup has been quite a doozy. And after last night's action (Day 3), it's officially a doozy. Richard Gasquet of France, the last man to qualify for the tournament, upset number three in the world and crowd favorite, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, in convincing fashion, 6-4, 6-2. It was Djokovic's second loss in the tournament, after falling to Spaniard David Ferrer...

... why not get a terracotta one instead? That statue on the right, ladies and gentlemen, is Roger Federer.

Because Shanghaiist knows you're all fans, we're sure readers aged 12-16 are excited to hear that Avril Lavigne will be playing Shanghai on August 15! Avril will be perform one night at the prestigious Shanghai Qi Zhong Tennis Center (where the NBA play-off between Cleveland and Orlando will be held in October). RMB 200 tickets already seem to be sold out, but for those of you who aren't part of the "penny-pinching-white-male-with-a-yellow-heart-pseudo intelligentsia" crowd, tickets are still available at RMB 400, 800, 1200, and 2000 from this site.

After their appearance in the final of The Championships, Wimbledon, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have both qualified for the year-ending Masters Cup, held annually in Minhang, Shanghai.

The NBA is coming to Shanghai again on October 17. This time the Cleveland Cavaliers, fresh off the worst NBA Finals performance we have ever seen, take on the Orlando Magic. If meaningless preseason hoops is your thing, start booking tickets to Minhang District now. The game is being played way the hell out there at the Shanghai Qizhong Forest Sports City Tennis Center. And for those of you who remember the 2004 Shanghai clash between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings (tickets for which started at US$12) you might be interested to know that tickets for the 2007 version start at US$105. Now, we know the dollar has gotten weaker ... but this seems like a greedy move for a sport and league that should be trying to appeal to the common man. (UPDATE: According to the seating chart, it looks like very few nose-bleed seats were priced at RMB 200, but maybe they are sold out.)

There seems to be some changes afoot in the ATP, including cutting down the currently nine tournament Master's series down to eight, and moving the Masters' Cup back to Europe. However, that doesn't mean that Shanghai will no longer host a major tournament. Etienne de Villiers, the new chairman of the ATP, revealed that

Plans are to stage new combined tournaments before the French Open in the spring and convert the current Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai into an autumn dual-sex event.

Photos from thepirate411.

The race for the eight spots in this year’s Tennis Masters Cup -- to be held in Shanghai for the third time (November 12-19) -- is hotting up, with newer stars like Marcos Baghdatis and James Blake vying to join old hands Federer, Roddick and Nadal in the prestigious end-of-year tournament.

Have you ever heard of Henrik Stenson? He's a very good golfer, but not exactly a household name (unless, of course, you are from Sweden). He is, however, the highest ranked golfer participating in this week's BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. Ernie Els, Luke Donald and David Howell all pulled out of the tournament, citing one ailment or another. It's leading some to wonder: Are the world's top athletes allergic to Shanghai? You may remember the mass exodus of top names at the ATP Tennis Masters Cup last fall. And more recently, many of the big guns did not make the trip to the World Short Course Swimming Championships. The South China Morning Post has taken to calling this the "Shanghai Sickness" -- we always thought that was food poisoning. Anyway, here's a list of athletes that don't seem to be current on their Shanghai shots:

Shanghaiist found itself out at the Qi Zhong Tennis Stadium yesterday, clutching a media pass for the final day of competition in the FINA 8th World Short Course Swimming Championships. Outside, the rain pelted down in sheets and the parking lots were awash with water. This seemed rather apt, considering that the organizers had taken the ATP Masters tennis court and turned it into a 25-metre pool. If only they'd turned the forlorn "Media Snacks Centre" into a Burger King.

• Rent a car in Shanghai, drop it off in Beijing a couple days later -- all for RMB 1,200. We have our doubts whether this deal is available to foreigners, but right now it is only open to Shouqi Car Leasing Co.'s 10,000 members. Why? They don't want people driving off with their cars: "The high proportion of people who rent cars but fail to return them has been a major hurdle in China. About 6 percent of the entire Beijing rental fleet of 20,000 were stolen last year." Ouch.
• The Masters Cup Tennis Tournament will stay in Shanghai until at least 2008.
• Maybe someday it won't be all about the Maojamens. Replacing Mao's image on Chinese banknotes with Sun Yatsen and Deng Xiaoping, and other CPPCC proposals of interest.

In a stunning blow to the competition in this year's ATP Tennis Master's Cup in Shanghai, Rafael Nadal (left foot) and Andre Agassi (ankle) have withdrawn from play.