Special report: 24th Universiade Bangkok 2007    

    By Sportswriter Zhang Suyue

    BANGKOK, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Training for China's tennis players, boys in particular, must focus on raising the speed of their strokes and serves, instead of other skills, to make a fundamental boost in the future.

    The viewpoint was made by Wei Jiajing, a coach of the Chinese Universiade tennis team to Bangkok, on Friday, one day after the Universiade tennis competition ended with host Thailand topping the medal table and China empty-handed.

    "Obviously, Chinese players cannot get used to the fast speed of foreign athletes, especially the boys," said Wei Jiajing, who coached many Chinese players on various levels in the past decade.

    "Frankly speaking, it is not only a matter of height or muscle, but related to the system of selecting and training the young players," he noted.

    The average height of male players in the Chinese team reaches 1.78 meter, much higher than the overall average of Chinese male population. Nevertheless, any Caucasian boy lower than 1.85m is seldom found on the tennis court.

    "The grass root coaches in China usually concentrate on players' skills, rather than building up their power," said Wei. "But the age from 12 to 15 is absolutely the best period for teenagers to boost their power in the daily training."

    "Moreover, the coaches on higher level always intend to select the potential seeds with better skills rather than considering whether they are strapping or not," Wei said, adding that the bottleneck is resulted from the eagerness for quick success and instant benefit.

    "All coaches are under certain pressure of reaching the objectives set by their supervising administration. Thus, they have no choice but to choose those who can create good results as soon as possible," he admitted.

    Citing a string of triumphs made by the Chinese women's tennis players, Wei said, "One of the key reasons for the girls' success is their outstanding power. Both Yan Zi and Peng Shuai use both hands for their forehand strokes in order to speed up their smashes."

    The Chinese girls highlighted the world tennis courts over the past three years when Zheng Jie/Yan Zi claimed the double titles in Australian and Wimbledon Opens in 2006, following their compatriots Li Ting/Sun Tiantian's victory in Athens 2004.

    However, it is a different story for boys, since they will not be able to compete with Caucasians in the speed of stroke and serve if they lack the specific training on power and muscles, Wei said.

    China sent a eight-strong tennis team to Bangkok Universiade. Half of them had at least one national university title.

    However, only Ren Jing/Liu Fang managed to advance to the final eight of the women's doubles, while others were all eliminated in the first two rounds.