Jiang Hongwei, head coach of Chinese national women's tennis
team, expressed his agony about the current situation of the
national team and said the team need to be adjusted completely.
The women's tennis team did not perform well at China Open.
Athens Olympics women's doubles titlist Sun Tiantian lost to Swiss
Martina Hingis and Yan Zi was also ousted by American Abigail
Spears on Tuesday. Peng Shuai beat Mauresmo to reach the semifinals
but did not manage to enter the final.
As Chinese women's tennis team had won a gold in Athens
Olympics, they want to continue their success next year in
Beijing.
However, considering their performances at China Open, head
coach Jiang Hongwei said he was quite worried about the national
team since there were two big problems to be solved.
"According to the performances last year, the team are quite in
form. But now two big problems, injury and fatigue, make a lot of
troubles for us", said Jiang, "in fact, I have been quite worried
recently, but I have to wait until the winter training camp to make
adjustment."
China's two-time Grand Slam doubles champion Zheng Jie has
injured her ankle and taken a surgery, while Li Na is in the
recurrence of a muscle injury. They missed the Wimbledon Open and
the US Open. The top two players' absence makes Jiang under big
pressure.
"Zheng Jie is the main force both in singles and doubles, her
absence directly affects the morale of the whole team", said the
head coach, "now we could not take the risk to let her play the
game. We can only let her take sufficient rest and hope she can be
fit as soon as possible."
"Zheng Jie and Li Na will not participate any competition this
year", said Jiang, "now injury is our biggest opponent."
Zheng's injury also disturbs the disposition of the doubles
games. She should have partnered Yan Zi to try to win the Beijing
Olympics gold medal, but now Yan Zi is paired with Peng Shuai,
which disturbs the partnership of Peng Shuai and Sun Tiantian.
"My situation is better than I expected. Now I can do some easy
training." Zheng Jie told reporters at China Open Wednesday.
Although Zheng Jie's WTA singles ranking is out of the first 100
due to her absence, and her WTA doubles ranking is out of the top
10, it is not difficult for her to be qualified for the
Olympics.
"I think I can be back to competitions after some days, and I
will put the doubles in my consideration first. Because the singles
requires higher physical strength and I will be more careful."
(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2007)