SPORTS> Tennis
Nadal's return a boost for China Open
By Yu Yilei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-02 07:48

As the nation celebrates the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the tennis world's No 2 player, Rafael Nadal, has provided even more reason for the country to smile as he announced on Wednesday he will compete at the China Open, which starts today.

After hours of tedious examinations in Barcelona, Spain, Nadal, who withdrew from the current Thailand Open due to an abdominal injury sustained during the US Open last month, has been cleared for competition, according to his official website www.rafaelnadal.com.

That means the Spaniard will be able to continue his winning streak in Beijing where he won the 2005 China Open and the Olympic gold medal at last August's Games.

Nadal is the men's No 1 seed for the Oct 2-11 tournament followed by Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the world No 4. American world No 5 and defending champion Andy Roddick is the third seed, ahead of Russian world No 8 Nikolay Davydenko and Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

On the women's side, world No 1 Dinara Safina of Russia has already started training at the National Tennis Center, where she won Olympic silver last year. The 23-year-old is hoping to regain some ground after a shocking first-round defeat to qualifier Chang Kai-Chen of Taiwan at the Tokyo Open a few days ago.

However, Safina will face stiff competition at the China Open where the world's top 50 players are mandated to play.

Safina boasts a 54-13 record this year but still has not won a Grand Slam title. Her best results were at the Australian Open, where she was runner-up to Serena Williams, and the French Open, where she lost to countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final.

According to the latest reports, American Sam Querrey, who is ranked No 25 in the world, has had to pull out of the Open because of an arm injury. Querrey, one of the rising stars on the men's circuit, is believed to have fallen on a glass table and cut his right arm. He apparently needed urgent surgery and will be out of action for at least four weeks.

On the women's side, Czech Dominika Cibulkova, ranked No 20 in the world, announced she will miss the Beijing tournament due to a rib injury. Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and the runner-up at the 2005 event, has entered the tournament as a substitute.

The tournament starts today with the qualifiers of the women's singles where 32 players will battle it out for eight places in the main draw.

American Melanie Oudin, a surprise quarterfinalist at the US Open, and Taiwan's Chang, who knocked out Safina in Tokyo, will appear in the qualifiers along with three Chinese mainland players, Liang Chen, Zhou Yimiao and Xu Yifan.

Tickets are available at the venue from 9:30 am.

(China Daily 10/02/2009 page12)