The women's doubles has improved rapidly and the Chinese women's players need to do their best to defend the title they had won four years ago, said China's tennis head coach Jiang Hongwei on Monday.
Chinese tennis moved into a fast lane since Li Ting/Sun Tiantian's epic women's doubles triumph at the Athens Games, notably Zheng Jie making the last four in this year's Wimbledon and claiming two Grand Slam doubles titles with long-time partner Yan Zi in 2006.
"Women's doubles changed a lot since and the WTA has raised the ranking points and the prize money for the event, so more and more players get involved and the rivalry has become tight," said Jiang at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre where the Olympic tennis event will be held during Aug 10-17.
The Chinese women's team went to North China's Tianjin for final assault towards the Beijing Games since the players finished the Wimbledon competition.
The three-week-long camp was completely behind-door as the Chinese team needed to get away from the media hype. "When we came back from the Wimbledon, we were just stunned by the noisy media at the airport. The players need to calm down ahead of the Games," Jiang said. "Keep a cool mind helps shrug off the pressure."
China's tennis girls suffered a major setback in 2007 when Zheng's left ankle was badly injured in the French Open while former top 20 player Li Na was hurt in the rib.
The two players were rested for almost half a year before they tested their form early this season.
Li claimed the Gold Coast title in January while Zheng joined Yan again to make two consecutive finals ahead of the Australian Open and claimed the Sydney title, their 11th of their career.
"We posed challenge towards other duos four years ago, but now the situation is reversed. Zheng/Yan is under the spotlight while other players are lurking around, so the competition will be a hard-fought one."
Zheng and Yan are looked at as the heaviest favorites of China in tennis event and the host country also need them to fuel the medal drive to charge the top of the medal tables.
Chuang Chia-Jung and Chan Yung-Jan from Chinese Taipei, ranked seventh and eighth separately in the doubles, are the most consistent duo in the top 20 doubles players. The Taipei duet, who kept a 3-0 record over Zheng and Yan in 2007, will be expected to cause trouble for the Chinese contingent.
"It was not only the Chinese Taipei team, many other teams are hard to beat. It's possible for anybody to win the doubles title."
The doubles event has a 32-team field with America's Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport/Liezel Huber, Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova/Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina/Vera Zvonareva, and Spain's Medina Garrigues/Ruano Pascual also eyeing the medals.
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)