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Fans braced for first-round fireworks
Beijing, 11 September 2005 - The men’s event at the China Open gets under way tomorrow (Monday) with some spectacular first-round clashes on the cards.
High among these is the battle between eighth seed Carlos Moya of Spain and unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand. One of the most dangerous players outside the top 10, Paradorn is currently ranked 51, but was world No.9 less than two years ago and will be keen to do well in an Asian tournament.
The pair have met three times before, with Moya, who is currently ranked 33 in the world, winning all three matches, but being pushed to a third set in the final in Chennai at the start of this year.
The tournament draw and the presence of so many superstars have tournament director Ekkehard Rathgeber predicting some explosive action.
“Monday will be only the first day of what promises to be a fantastic two weeks of tennis. The China Open has world class players in both the men’s and women’s tournaments and tennis fans are in for a great show,” says Rathgeber, who is also Chief Operating Officer of tournament co-organiser TOM Group Limited, an associate of Hutchison Whampoa Limited.
“We have some of the world’s top players competing in a state-of-the-art venue, and that all adds up to the China Open being Asia’s leading tennis tournament and one of the most important events on the international tennis calendar.”
In a battle of Swedish veterans, fourth seed Thomas Johansson faces wildcard entry Jonas Bjorkman.
Bjorkman, a doubles specialist with 42 doubles titles to his name is a very capable singles player, with five career titles and a career high ranking of world No.4. He and Johansson, who won the Australian Open in 2002, are familiar with each other’s game and it promises to be a close match.
Two unseeded players – Rainer Schuettler and Jarkko Nieminen – will provide another exciting early match-up. Schuettler is a Grand Slam finalist, having reached the Australian Open final in 2003 (when he was beaten by Andre Agassi), he is a former world No.5, has four ATP titles and has tasted victory in China before, having won in Shanghai in 2001.
Nieminen has yet to win an ATP title but he has been in four finals and has just had a fantastic US Open, reaching the quarter-finals in which he lost to Lleyton Hewitt in five sets.
The China Open’s top seeded men have seemingly easier paths through the first round, with Rafael Nadal drawing Wang Yeu Tzuoo of Taiwan, and Guillermo Coria drawing one of the qualifiers.
Rounding out the eight seeded players, third seed David Nalbandian will face Kristian Pless of Denmark, fifth seed Dominik Hrbaty plays Chinese wildcard Wang Yu, sixth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero plays Korea’s Lee Hyung Taik, and seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny faces a qualifier.
The two-week tournament will see men’s singles and doubles played the first week, with the final on September 18, and women’s singles and doubles the following week (September 17-25).
In the women’s singles, Venus Williams will be aiming to dethrone sister Serena, winner of the 2004 China Open, while strong competition will come from Lindsay Davenport and 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova.
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Released on behalf of TOM Group and the China Open by Two Up Front - Asia’s sports PR specialists.