Asia has slim pickings at the Australian Open with many players failing to make progress last year, but hope remains for regional success with Zheng Jie and Kei Nishikori at the forefront.
Going into the tournament, eight Asian women are ranked within the top 100, the same as this time last year. China’s Zheng is the highest placed at 24, four ahead of compatriot Li Na.
Remarkably, veterans Ai Sugiyama of Japan (ranked 29) and Thai trailblazer Tamarine Tanasugarn (35) remain top-50 players, although they will be the first to admit that they are past their prime.
PHOTO: AP
Others making the grade include Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan (75) and Hsieh Su-wei (80), China’s Peng Shuai (39) and Japan’s Ayumi Morita (76).
But players like China’s Yan Zi and Japan’s Akiko Morigami and Aiko Nakamura have all slipped off the radar.
Another high-profile casualty is India’s Sania Mirza, who was ranked 31 ahead of the Australian Open last year but is now languishing at 107 after wrist surgery.
Asian men’s tennis remains in dire straits with just two players inside the top 100, but that includes Japan’s Nishikori who burst onto the scene last year and has stormed up the rankings to 61 — two places ahead of Taiwan’s Lu-Yen hsun.
Chinese star Zheng, who has won three tour singles titles and 11 doubles titles plans to concentrate more on singles this year and had been working hard on her fitness.
“The most important thing I feel is I need more fitness because the Asia players, we are so small. I need to get stronger and more powerful so I am working so hard on my fitness,” she said.
Li, who has yet to go beyond the fourth round in Melbourne in four attempts, will be hoping to do better, although a cloud hangs over her participation after she pulled out of this month’s Brisbane International injured.
India’s Mirza, 22, has been built up as a star of the future but questions remain over her abilities on the big stage, where she has failed to go beyond her fourth round appearance at the US Open in 2005.
A youth icon in India, she had a 2008 to forget with surgery on her right wrist in April ruining her season. She made brief comebacks before bowing out of the Beijing Olympics in tears. But she is now hitting the ball harder than ever and hungry for success.
“The most important thing is I am back and so is my confidence,” she said. “I can say that I am in the best frame of mind for the big league again. This is the beginning of a new chapter in my career.”
Asian men’s tennis has been in the doldrums for years but in Nishikori there is hope that a player has finally emerged who can make waves.
The 19-year-old caused a sensation by capturing his first ATP title at Delray Beach last February in only his fifth tournament since turning professional.
His US Open performance, where he reached the fourth round put him in the world spotlight and he wants to build on that this year.
“I hope I will be able to do better than last year,” he said. “I reached the fourth round at the US Open, so my goal at the Australian Open is to finish higher.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS