Title: China's Fed Cup SHOCK!
Description: !!!
jack.hl.ng - March 29, 2007 07:51 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
China's top two Li Na and Zheng Jie will miss next month's Fed Cup tie against holders Italy to help other players qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, according to a senior China Tennis Association (CTA) official.
Zheng's doubles partner Yan Zi will also skip China's world group debut in Castellaneta Marina on April 21-22 to make way for Peng Shuai, Olympic doubles gold medallist Sun Tiantian and "some youngsters with potential".
"This is to ensure the Olympic players have played Fed Cup twice before the Games as the (rules) require," Gao Shenyang, deputy director of the CTA said.
"The Olympics has the first priority," he added. "If there are conflicts we have to sacrifice the Fed Cup."
Li is China's best hope of singles gold at next year's Olympics and Gao said the CTA were still looking for another coach for the world number 17.
"Li Na is a very talented player and we'll offer her more help and support," he said.
"We're now looking for a top class foreign coach and before that we let her husband coach her temporarily. So far we have seen positive effects.
"We've hired experts to strengthen her physical power and a team of researchers is analysing her every match and reporting back to her coach."
Two sports psychologists have also been recruited to help the women players but Gao said he thought Li's shortcomings were as much technical as the result of her fragile mentality.
"She has a strong forehand attack but a lack of variety and is weak in net play," he said.
"So if the opponent withstands her first attacks... she becomes impatient. It is not simply a mental problem."
Gao said that contrary to internet rumours, Zheng and Yan, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles last year, would not be split up in the shake-up of women's doubles partnerships.
"They have encountered some new problems and new challenges and they are positively reviewing them and trying to find ways of progressing," he said.
"We are also trying out new pairings and will fix the second and third doubles before June and start to get points for the Olympic qualifiers."
Gao also said negotiations were continuing for former French Open champion Michael Chang to coach China's number three Peng.
The Chinese-American spoke to the CTA about helping out on a visit to China last November and was pictured watching world number 40 Peng playing at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last week.
"Personally I very much hope we can sort it out," Gao said. |
ANOTHER stupid move by the chinese government....
having ONLY just reaching the world group last year by beating Germany in the playoffs, the government decided to remove the best players on the team, just so they can "try out" some new talent...
Li Na, world no.17, career high of 16 this year, taken off the team, so that other players can play... =,= she is currently the best singles chinese girl out there.. (even Clijsters said that)!!!!
Zheng Jie, the 2nd highest ranked chinese singles player, taken off the team! :o
She and Yan Zi, the current Wimbledon Doubles Titles holder, and the winner of womens doubles at the Australian Open 2006, are also off the team!
This is the worse mistake... the government need to understand that it is *highly* unlikely Li Na, Zheng Jie, or any other chinese player, will take a gold medal in singles... but we do have a chance to win in womens doubles...
however, they shouldnt be risking a Fed Cup title just for the olympics. they must be realistic about their goals... and to be honest, if players like Li, Zheng or Yan Zi, are to win a medal, then they will..
Gov are intervening too much... and to be honest, govt intervention is a measure of market failure (though its not to relavent here :rolleyes: )
generally quite pissed off about this :angry:
China had a very good chance to do well in Fed Cup, and a good chance for the title, with strong singles players, and VERY strong doubles players... this is China's *FIRST* time in the world group, and had a convincing win over germany last year at 4-1 in the playoffs ... all for it to be wasted...
we have italy as the first opponent, then either Japan or france in the semi final...
we had a very good chance to reach the semis, and equally good a chance to reach the final...
stupid chinese govt! greedy, and wanting the olympics to be amazing...
all i have to say is that, we dont have the best chances of winning in beijing 2008.... let the players play fed and olympics... fed cup is a very good thing to win... and its our first year playing... :( why start it with a down :(
:angry: :angry: :angry:
Nick Havoc - March 29, 2007 09:56 PM (GMT)
I can see both sides of it. They might have had a chance at doing well in the Fed Cup, but I can understand the desire to allow more players to become eligible for the Olympics, with China being the hosts. Tough call, in my mind. If they played their top players in Fed Cup, but lost first round anyway, they'd sure be regretting not having made this move.
jack.hl.ng - March 29, 2007 10:15 PM (GMT)
hmmmm
to be honest... i really cant see china losing to Italy in the first round of the Fed Cup :(
its a real shame though... but im starting to see what the govt is doing... getting more girls onto the circuit... though if good enough they should be doing well in ITF and WTA events... and their not...
i dont know why they should represent the country, if they arent *that* good....
Nick Havoc - March 30, 2007 03:33 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (jack.hl.ng @ Mar 29 2007, 05:15 PM) |
| to be honest... i really cant see china losing to Italy in the first round of the Fed Cup :( |
I can. Li seems to be playing well, but she has had losses this year to players ranked lower than both Schiavone and Santangelo. And none of the other Chinese girls have exactly been world-beaters in singles. The Italians haven't, either, but even with China's top line-up, I'd put Italy as favourites, playing at home.
jack.hl.ng - March 30, 2007 03:47 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Nick Havoc @ Mar 30 2007, 04:33 PM) |
| QUOTE (jack.hl.ng @ Mar 29 2007, 05:15 PM) | | to be honest... i really cant see china losing to Italy in the first round of the Fed Cup :( |
I can. Li seems to be playing well, but she has had losses this year to players ranked lower than both Schiavone and Santangelo. And none of the other Chinese girls have exactly been world-beaters in singles. The Italians haven't, either, but even with China's top line-up, I'd put Italy as favourites, playing at home.
|
hmmm... i guess playing at home, gives them the advantage of choosing what sort of court to use for their players and against the chinese...
its a chance for China to showcase new talent, however, its our first year in the World Group, and i dont think China, should really try out new players just yet. SO much effort for us to get here in the first place..
Sure Li has had some dissappointing results this year, Tokyo and the two tournaments in the middle east, but LI has been consistently good at the start of the year, Sydney and Australian Open. Furthermore, she has been playing extremely well recently, SF showing at Indian Wells, her 2nd SF at a Tier 1, and a QF in Miami this week, with a win over Clijsters, Li's first top 5 win.
I reckon her time off over Chinese New Year, distracted her from training and schedule, and this showed in the difference she was playing at Tokyo.
But I believe China's chances would be very good with Li, Zheng, Peng and Zi playing...
Zheng Jie is an *alright* singles player, currently ranked 31, with a career high of 27. She has won 3 WTA titles, thats 2 more than Li, and has 5 top 20 wins, including Penetta.
The doubles team, are just amazing, need i say more :P
sorry im very *patriotic* :wub:
timmadigan - March 30, 2007 06:10 PM (GMT)
I can see and understand China's reasoning in this. To qualify for the Olympics, players HAVE to play in 2 Fed Cups (not the best of rules but one we have to live with).
Thus they need to play all their potential players at the start since they can't risk losing in Round 1 with their top players and only having 2 players qualify for singles in their home Olympics.
jack.hl.ng - March 30, 2007 08:32 PM (GMT)
OH! :wacko:
does that mean if we win round 1, china can still change the team? (im a bit new to this, didnt no they could change the team after each round ^^)
oh... in that case, forget what i said... it is a good decision from the gov... use the *not as good* players in round 1, and if we get through, they could change the team ^^
heehee! whoopsie! :giggle:
jack.hl.ng - April 21, 2007 02:16 PM (GMT)
UPDATE!!!!
| QUOTE |
China's top two Li Na and Zheng Jie will miss this weekend's Fed Cup tie against holders Italy after the Chinese Tennis Association misunderstood the rules.
World number 17 Li Na and 33rd ranked Zheng Jie were left out of the squad to help other players qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, according to a senior CTA official.
"This is to ensure the Olympic players have played Fed Cup twice before the Games as the (rules) require," Gao Shenyang, deputy director of the CTA, told Reuters last month.
"The Olympics has the first priority," he added ahead of China's world group debut in Castellaneta Marina. "If there are conflicts we have to sacrifice the Fed Cup."
However, the International Tennis Federation has written to the CTA to explain that players only have to be eligible for the Fed Cup to qualify for the Olympics and do not have to play.
"We did what we could," an ITF spokesman said on Wednesday. "It appeared they'd made a decision based on a misunderstanding of the rules. We advised them because we think it's important that the Fed Cup has the strongest teams possible."
"They sacrificed the Fed Cup for the Olympics and we said they didn't need to," he added. "It's a real shame."
The error means China have to play Fed Cup holders Italy with a weakened squad that includes Zhang Shuai and Sun Sheng-Nan, who are both outside the world's top 200.
World number 32 Peng Shuai and Olympic doubles gold medallist Sun Tiantian, ranked 90th, are also in the squad.
With Li, China's best hope of singles gold at the Olympics, and Zheng the team had been considered contenders to win the Fed Cup but Italy are now clear favourites to win the tie.
A CTA spokeswoman in Beijing said on Wednesday that she was not aware of the mix-up, adding that the squad had departed for Italy earlier in the day for the April 21-22 tie. |
trust them to get it wrong =,=
so LI AND ZHENG/YAN could of played :(
jack.hl.ng - April 21, 2007 04:47 PM (GMT)
china are sure to lose the tie against Italy now 2-0 down
Sun lost, and Peng retired :(