[CamilleVidann]

We have the biggest population in the world and naturally have the most talents of all. We're still underdevelopped tennis wise but are growing at the fastest rate ever. Wish more advanced facilities, experienced staff, we can ver well dominate this sport in the not too far future. We didn't see so many top 200 players just five years ago and now we have like quite a few. I think the 2010s will be our era.

 

[MLF]

I don't think they'll dominate the sport no but I do think there will be more Chinese players in the top 200 than ever before as travel restrictions become more relaxed. There have always been good Chinese players though. Hu Na, Fang Li & Jing-Qian Yi have all attained higher rankings in the past than current top Chinese player Jie Zheng.

The Chinese were supposed to dominate track and field after 1993 whenever Wang Junxia, Qu Yunxia & Dong Liu ran those amazing times but that neber happened.

 

[TheBoiledEgg]

well for one thing Tennis is certainly gonna go EAST.

be it East Europe or Far East....... its still definately East

 

[Grachka]

Is Zheng not going to be in the Top 100 after reaching the semis in Tokyo, beating Talaja and Tanasugarn, surely she will move?

 

[V.Melb]

The current lot are Tian-Tian Sun, Zi Yan, and of course, Jie Zheng.
Theres a couple of young ones to watch out for as well.
Particularly Shuai Peng. Already taken Amy Frazier to 3 sets.
Also Quan Gao and Sheng-Nan Sun are taking apart most girls in the spanish 10k's

 

[Steveg]

We have the biggest population in the world and naturally have the most talents of all. We're still underdevelopped tennis wise but are growing at the fastest rate ever. Wish more advanced facilities, experienced staff, we can ver well dominate this sport in the not too far future. We didn't see so many top 200 players just five years ago and now we have like quite a few. I think the 2010s will be our era.

China is targetting 2008, not the 2010s .

 

[wongqks]

realistically no, but I am sure by 2010 we will for sure see a chinese top 20 or top tenner. Yes China pour in a lot more money recently on tennis. But the truth is that generally chinese are shorter and less strong than western. (although yes we see a lot of big girls, but as a proportion it is not enough.) It is hard to see americans or europeans fading away as they too put a lot of money into the sport.

I will love to see a chinese slam winner one day, that would be great, but dominate the sport like the USA right now? I think not

 

[kku]

I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. There is no doubt that the Chinese government has put a lot of time and money into developing sport talents in China. But like Wongqks said, there are currently not enough physically developed Chinese tennis talents to knock the Western world from dominating the sport. And it's not like the Americans/Europeans are falling behind as well. China has yet to host an established big-name tournament - another sign of its infancy in the tennis world. And population doesn't mean much as well. Japan has over 125 million people, but most of the country's focus is on baseball and soccer, whereas tennis is pretty much neglected ever since Date left the scene *sigh*.

Money doesn't mean everything. Sure, the Chinese government are pumping a lot into the sport, but whether enough people are interested in putting that money to good use (i.e. a significant proportion love tennis enough).

But I don't think it's the physicality which handicapped Asian players from challenging the West. Chang and Date showed that court mobility and accuracy can very well make up for what they lack in size. I think it's 1) sponsers who are dedicated enough to staying behind the players and support a long career and 2) the asian emphasis on education takes a lot of potential practice time for players in developing their skills. About 99% of Asian players study and play tennis before debuting in the professional tour. Martina Hingis needed to practice an average of 5-6 hours a day on court. I suppose anything less than that won't guarantee a place in the top of the tennis league. After all, those in the business world work around 10 hours or more each day in order to try and move up the ladder, and tennis IS a profession, so it's expected that to be the best, tennis players have to dedicate a lot of practice time to honing their skills. I think that Asian players believe that they can study AND find enough time to practice. One example is Mario Ancic. Although he's not Asian, he's a part-time law student and so far, he's still sitting around the world's top 70 whereas he clearly has the talent to be in the top 20. So it's no surprise that the time he spends on hitting the law books is putting a dent on his tennis.

 

[kku]

Btw, shouldn't this thread be in the "Asian" section?

 

[wongqks]

thanks kku, i think it is good to put in GM, coz it maybe interesting for people who don't visiti the asian forum

 

[fammmmedspin]

The same question was asked about the Chinese gymnasts and athletes 10 years ago. Great strides were made but you still see the majority of medals going to Russians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Europeans, black Americans and Africans after more than 10 years. You can be a great tennis player with Date's build or Henin's but the East European/Russian body arguably looks as if it was designed to do well at 21c tennis. Its probably a mixture of build and tradition too - you just have to look at where Kim, Justine, Steffi, Monica, Martina 1 and 2 and lesser lights like Jelena or Anke or Sukova come from geographically to see that some areas seem to have tennis in the blood more. You never know though - if tennis became more popular in Africa or China you might see potential talent becoming real

 

[GoGoMaggie]

I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. There is no doubt that the Chinese government has put a lot of time and money into developing sport talents in China. But like Wongqks said, there are currently not enough physically developed Chinese tennis talents to knock the Western world from dominating the sport. And it's not like the Americans/Europeans are falling behind as well. China has yet to host an established big-name tournament - another sign of its infancy in the tennis world. And population doesn't mean much as well. Japan has over 125 million people, but most of the country's focus is on baseball and soccer, whereas tennis is pretty much neglected ever since Date left the scene *sigh*.

Money doesn't mean everything. Sure, the Chinese government are pumping a lot into the sport, but whether enough people are interested in putting that money to good use (i.e. a significant proportion love tennis enough).

But I don't think it's the physicality which handicapped Asian players from challenging the West. Chang and Date showed that court mobility and accuracy can very well make up for what they lack in size. I think it's 1) sponsers who are dedicated enough to staying behind the players and support a long career and 2) the asian emphasis on education takes a lot of potential practice time for players in developing their skills. About 99% of Asian players study and play tennis before debuting in the professional tour. Martina Hingis needed to practice an average of 5-6 hours a day on court. I suppose anything less than that won't guarantee a place in the top of the tennis league. After all, those in the business world work around 10 hours or more each day in order to try and move up the ladder, and tennis IS a profession, so it's expected that to be the best, tennis players have to dedicate a lot of practice time to honing their skills. I think that Asian players believe that they can study AND find enough time to practice. One example is Mario Ancic. Although he's not Asian, he's a part-time law student and so far, he's still sitting around the world's top 70 whereas he clearly has the talent to be in the top 20. So it's no surprise that the time he spends on hitting the law books is putting a dent on his tennis.

Well.. tennis is becoming really popular here again and this time among "young ppl" in big part thanks to this manga "Prince of Tennis". Now my high school has the biggest number of members in its tennis club of all and the same thing is happening in many other high schools. There used to be less then half students who played tennis and now despite the declining number of children, more kids are taking up the sport. I think this is a great sign and I only hope some of them will develop into world class players. I think more high school kids play tennis then baseball or soccer these days here. I don't know how long the trend will last cuz a lot of trends in Japan are quite short lived always.

 

[SJW]

ummmm.....i doubt it

like TBE said....it's going East....but i think the only Eastern country that can dominate tennis is Russia

you maybe will get a few good players, but as far as domination.....no

 

[TheBoiledEgg]

Jie Zheng will be Top 100 next week
either 98 or 99 depends on CM-Granados in Girona.

 

[Experimentee]

I dont think they will dominate tennis but definitely there can be lots of great players. Already we are seeing great improvement from the likes of Zheng, Yan and Sun, there are also a few good junior players.
I think Chinese players dont tend to start as early as Europeans, and also dont play as many tournaments so they will take longer to develop. Also a lot of them prefer to focus on their education first. But when they do start playing a lot theres no reason why they cant be great. I dont think physical size will be that much of a barrier, as we can see Sugiyama is doing very well and shes small. Justine shows you can be small and still a top player. And some Chinese are quite big, like that basketball player thats like 7ft tall, also theres those Chinese swimmers that were busted for doping, even if they werent on drugs you can see they'd be quite big naturally. So i think theres definitely a huge amount of potential there.

 

[Cybelle Darkholme]

We have the biggest population in the world and naturally have the most talents of all. We're still underdevelopped tennis wise but are growing at the fastest rate ever. Wish more advanced facilities, experienced staff, we can ver well dominate this sport in the not too far future. We didn't see so many top 200 players just five years ago and now we have like quite a few. I think the 2010s will be our era.

:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[Fantastic]

Traditionally, the Chinese have never had any really great tennis players. The Russians had a handful of good players in the past, namely Olga Morozova and Natasha Zvereva, but there wasn't any real depth in the ranks until recently. I don't think it's unthinkable that a group of young Chinese girls may be sorted from the rest and groomed for tennis greatness. If it's going to happen, the grand plan is already underway.

 

[kku]

:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

I'm confused...

What's so funny?

Oh, and your sig

 

[CamilleVidann]

kku don't even care. He's a phycho.
By the way, I'm chairperson of the AWA.

 

[kku]

kku don't even care. He's a phycho.
By the way, I'm chairperson of the AWA.

What's AWA?