*

Zhang knocks off world No. 1 Safina at China Open

Monday, 5th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

Zhang at the 2009 US Open, where she was eliminated in the first round
Zhang at the 2009 US Open, where she was eliminated in the first round
China's Zhang Shuai, a 20-year-old from Tianjin, knocked off world number one Dinara Safina at the China Open Monday night. Zhang, a lowly 226 in the WTA rankings, beat Safina in straight sets, with the second one going to a tiebreak for a 7-6 win. Safina did a pretty good job of beating herself, with 12 double faults in the match. Venus Williams also made an early exit Monday, losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Li Na advanced Monday night with a 2-1 victory over Lucie Safarova.

Rafael Nadal plays his first match of the tournament Tuesday, opening up against wild card Marcos Baghdatis. The China Open Web site is a little slow and scattered with the scheduling information, but expect Nadal to play late in the evening session, which starts at 7 p.m.

If you're in Beijing, tickets are available—lots of them, from the looks of it inside Center Court on Sunday. You can purchase online in advance, walk up to the box office, or try your luck with the scalpers outside the National Tennis Center. Getting strong attendance is a challenge at sporting events in China—even an event like this that has taken place here for several years, and features Chinese players with a good chance of going deep in the tournament. At Sunday's daytime session, on a beautiful fall holiday weekend, the arena wavered between about 15 percent and 30 percent capacity at Center Court, where Zheng Jie, Dinara Safina and Serena Williams all played.

While crowds were pretty thin inside the arena, the sponsors who purchased booths on the grounds enjoyed steady foot traffic. With some tennis-themed games to play, and concessions supplied by Papa John's, Element Fresh, RBT (Chinese fast food) and Heineken (Murphy's Stout on tap!), spectators at the China Open have a lot more to enjoy and choose from than they would at most Chinese sports events.

To get to the National Tennis Center, take the Line 8 subway (the Olympic line) to Olympic Park and look for a shuttle bus or ask a taxi driver to take you to the National Tennis Center (国家网球中心) on Aolin Xilu (奥林西路).

Tags: China Open, Dinara Safina, Li Na, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, tennis, Zhang Shuai