A few years ago Chinese tennis players were a rarity, with the exception of Fang-Li who reached a career high of 36 back in 1998! 

But with the Olympic games being held in Beijing later this year, China seems to have fresh talent on the women's tour.

Remember Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian are the defending Olympic champions coming from nowhere to win in Athens?

'The late development of Chinese players is no suprise as the authorities want their athletes to reach their peak for Beijing'


The tour in recent times has been dominated by the USA, Russia and Belgium but can China join them at the top of women's tennis? Let's have a look at some of the contenders.

Li Na is currently the No.1 player in China with a singles ranking of 23 and has been as high as 16 before injury ruined half of her season in 2007. 

She has two titles to her name, one of which came just a few months ago in the Gold Coast event.. Already in 2008 Li has impressive victories over top players such as Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, Anna Chakvetadze of Russia and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and has seen her reach eighth place on the WTA tour race rankings for the best players of 2008.

The late development of Chinese players is no surprise as the authorities want their athletes to reach their peak for Beijing and Na Li is certainly on the right road to success. Missing most of the end of last year means Li will have no points to defend in her rise up the rankings and could easily break into the top 10 this year. 

As well as her impressive victories in 2008, Li Na has career wins over a host of top 20 players including Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonereva, Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina showing she really is a formidable opponent.

Zi Yan is the second-highest ranked Chinese player on the WTA tour at a career high of 54.  The 23-year-old is a excellent doubles player winning two Grand Slam titles at the Austrlaian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 reaching a high of four on the rankings. 

In 2007 Zi Yan decided to concentrate on her singles game and it has paid off as she reached the semi-finals in Bangalore and Toronto and was a title winner way back in 2005 in Guangzhou, China. 

I expect her to move into the top 30 in the world by the end of the year and if she could regain the form of 2006 in doubles she could again challenge for honours with her long-term partner Jie Zheng. 

Zheng is another to watch out for on the tour. She has three singles titles to her name and a career high ranking of 27. She is currently outside of the top 200 due to missing of half of last year but has shown signs getting back to where she was in 2006 and challenging for titles once again.

22-year-old Shuai Peng is the youngest of the talented Chinese players to make her mark on the WTA tour.  She has a highest ranking of 31 on the WTA tour and 20 in doubles. The young player sometimes has problems on her serve but if she can sort this out and gain in confidence she could add to her credentials in a big way.

Another Chinese player to watch out for is Meng Yuan, who has just broken into the WTA top 100 ranking in 2008 with a career high of 87.  She is one of the most hard-working players on the tour playing in over 30 tournaments last year.  She recently qualified for the Australian Open and reached the second round.

But just how far can this huge nation go? There is no doubt that the Chinese will be determined to win medals at Beijing in front of their home crowds and maybe, just maybe, tennis can take the limelight from China's favoured sports such as table tennis.