To begin: An Only in China Item:
Tennis fans in Beijing gathered together to have a go at the Readers
Digest record for the highest number of tennis players bouncing their balls all
at the same time. 767 fans bounced balls on their tennis racquets, This was a
game of how many rather than how long for.
Unfortunately there is no film of this right now, when I find a film of it I
will give you the link.
To More Serious Things:
The Wuhan Women’s Tennis Tournament.
This tournament is well under way. Wuhan, which is a 13
hour drive south of Beijing, has seen several scalps being taken already to
both injury and good tennis play.
Crowds will be disappointed that Serina Williams pulled
out due to the injuries sustained by a physically punishing schedule over the
past few months and the next scalp to go was Maria Sharapova also due to sustained
injuries.
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| Britain's Johanna Konta |
The next few scalps were down to great play. The new
British No 1. Johanna Konta not only gave Simona Halep a great run for her
money but finally won the match 6-3 3-6 7-5. Konta however was not so lucky in her next
match playing against Serina’s sister Venus Williams. Venus took her next
tournament scalp beating Konta with a match win of 6-4 3-6 7-5.
The first semi final is now between Venus Williams USA and
Roberta Vinci of Italy and no apologies for noticing but with a name like that she
has to be Italian, (Leonardo I hope you are looking down on her and wishing her
well). The second semi is between Muguruza Blano of Spain v Angelique Kerber of
Germany.
Doubles quarter final matches are moving along with
expected results panning out.
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| Hingis In Doubles Action |
Begue/Niculescu will play Muguruza/Navarro
Hlavackove/Hradecka will play Dabrowsski/Rosolska
The Chan sisters play Joerges/Pliskova.
Favourites Hingis and Mirza play Kops-Jones and Spears.
Lots of different countries are represented here Romania, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Poland, India, Switzerland, Germany, China and last but not least the USA. It is a great variety. It is also good to see the variety of seeded players making it through to the semi finals as it adds spice to the proceedings. The final will be a much awaited contest especially as the Chinese Open begins in Beijing immediately after the Wuhan final.
Women players are certainly working hard for all that lovely money they earn on the circuit. See you all in Beijing! 3-11th October. The prize money at that tournament is over £3,146,920, which therefore is nice work if you can get it.
The men get their chance to demonstrate their prowess in the men’s Chinese Open from the 5th October to the 11th overlapping with the women at the same venue, the Beijing Olympic Park. The usual top players are taking part in front of Chinese audiences now thoroughly in love with international tennis. It won’t be long I am sure before we see both Chinese men and women taking their place at the top of the rankings.
Jemima J.Jones - Blog Writer
