BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- A few years ago, the Russians were coming.

    Now it's the Chinese who are shaping up as the next big thing in women's tennis.

    There were seven Chinese in the main singles draw of the Australian Open. As of yesterday, two were left after first-round matches, most of them losing to seeded players or players ahead of them in the rankings.

Sun Tiantian reacts during her play against third-seeded Mauresmo. (Reuters)

    Li Na took defending champion Serena Williams to three sets on Monday, and Sun Tiantian, one-half of the Athens Olympics gold medallist doubles team for China, gave third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo a tough time yesterday before losing in three.

    "Everyone talks about the Russians, I always thought the Chinese have a great slew of players coming up," Williams said before her match. "Not only are they in the draw, but they're actually doing well."

    Well, not so well this week.

    On Monday, three went out - Russian Elena Vesnina beat Li Ting 6-2, 6-3, Ashley Harkleroad of the United States defeated Peng Shuai 6-4, 6-1 and Williams beat Li Na 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2.

    The third-seeded Mauresmo beat Sun 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 yesterday while Anna Chakvetadze of Russia defeated Zheng Jie 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

    But in two other matches yesterday, Yan Zi upset 11th-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3 and qualifier Yuan Meng defeated Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4, 6-2.

    Sun, Yan and Yuan were all making their Australian Open singles debuts.

    In 2002, there were no Chinese women in the top 100 on the WTA Tour. Now there are seven in the top 200, three of them in the 50s.

    Li Na is ranked 52nd this week, one ahead of Peng, while Zheng is 55. Yan is 88th, Sun 103rd, Yuan 152 and Li Ting 195.

    While they have not come close to winning a Grand Slam like the new wave of Russians did in 2004 - Anastasia Myskina (French Open) Maria Sharapova (Wimbledon) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (US Open) - there have been some Chinese successes.

    Zheng, 22, won the WTA singles and doubles title at Hobart, Australia in 2004. Li Ting joined Sun on the gold medal doubles podium at Athens, Zheng and Yan Zi won three doubles titles last season and Sun has six doubles titles overall.

Yan Zi celebrates after defeating 11th-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France. (Xinhua)

    In 2002, Li Na won both a singles and doubles title. Yan won the Guangzhou singles title last year.

    Last year, Peng reached the highest-ever ranking by a Chinese woman - 31 - and beat Kim Clijsters and Elene Dementieva along the way.

    "It hasn't been the best tournament for us, but we are still optimistic," Peng said after a practice session yesterday. "We had to play some pretty tough players."

    The Chinese presence this year is in contrast to 2002, when Australian Open officials got a call from their transport people to say two Chinese players had shown up unannounced with their coach and wanted to play doubles.

    "They hadn't entered, they just showed up on the doorstep," said Australian Open official John Lindsay. "We thought they were here, they've come all this way, we should give them a doubles wild card."

    They did, allowing Li Ting and Sun to begin their preparations for that Olympic medal in Athens more than two years later.

(Source: China Daily)