Even China's most loyal fans must be getting tired of the country's men's tennis players, who have struggled to emerge from obscurity as their women's counterparts continue to impress on the WTA Tour.
But Sun Peng, China's top-ranked men's player at 459, insists China's men's heyday will come after the Olympics.
After this Olympic showing, let's hope Sun's right. Both China's men's Olympians bowed out of the Games in the first round yesterday as Sun lost to Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4 and 782nd-ranked Yu Xinyuan got thumped by Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych, 6-1, 6-2.
"We have been gaining experience over the past few years, so I believe we are able to make a breakthrough like the women's team after the Beijing Games," said Sun, an Olympic debutant.
"We were given more opportunities over the past two years, and now we have chances to play as many overseas tournaments as we want. Maybe fans haven't noticed yet, but we are improving steadily."
Despite a wide talent gap between them and the world's top players, China's men have made good progress since the Athens Games in 2004 thanks to strong support from officials and sponsors.
"The gap between the world's top players and us is becoming smaller," Sun said. "We are now able to play against many foreign players on an equal footing, and we will prove it."
Compared to their status four years ago, when top player Wang Yu's world ranking hovered around 700 and none of his teammates were in the top 800, Sun broke into the top 500 for a while this year and his doubles ranking reached No 290.
National team coach Xie Zhao says his players now compete in 15 ATP tournaments each year, and though they are mostly low-level pro tournaments, it is far more than five years ago when they only played in two or three tournaments a year.
"They are not able to advance as fast as the women's team, but I am pretty satisfied with their play this season," Xie said.
South Korean Lee Hyung-taik, Asia's second-highest-ranked player at No 96, echoed Xie, saying it is just a matter of time before Chinese men start contesting top events.
"They can play," said Lee, who advanced to the last 16 of the 2007 US Open. "They are very good players technically and they just need to play more tournaments to climb up the rankings.
"Chinese women's players are playing impressively on the Tour, so I think the male players have some very good examples and they should follow the women to compete in as many tournaments as possible."
The peak of China's men's tennis came in the early 1990s, when Pan Bing ranked world No 180, the best ranking ever for a Chinese man. Another Chinese player Xia Jiaping had previously ranked 235. The singles gold medal won by Pan at the Beijing Asian Games in 1990 is now considered a sort of swan song for the men's team.
"To be honest, we suffered a talent drought after their (Pan and Xia's) retirement," Xie said. "But the situation is getting better since five teenagers with good potential joined the team.
"China's women's doubles gold medal at the Athens Olympics also helped promote the sport in China."
Source: China Daily
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