Like the Chinese national men's soccer team, which made a maiden trip to the 17th FIFA World Cup in June, Chinese tennis ladies will also become debutantes in the Fed Cup World Group Play Offs on 20-21 July in Beijing.
Launched in 1963 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the Fed Cup is the world's premier women's team competition and attracts the best players in the women's game.
As the top finisher of the 2002 Asia/Oceania Zone Qualifiers, which was held in Guangzhou from March 4 to 11, China gained its first-ever ticket to the World Group Play Offs with Japan.
China completed a perfect six-win record at the qualifiers with a squad of Li Na, Li Ting, Zheng Jie and Liu Nannan.
The regional qualifiers will take the first round losers of the 2002 World Group matches and the winners will go on to become the 16 teams in the 2003 World Group.
China is drawn against Russia, last year's runners-up, which lost to Germany 2-3 in the first round of the World Group on 27-28 April.
To ensure a place in the 2003 World Group matches, Russia will field a very strong line-up, including the world No 15 Elena Dementieva, No 21 Tatiana Panova, No 22 Anastasia Myskina, No 43 Elena Likhovtseva and No 73 Elena Bovina.
The Chinese team are overall weak. The same players that performed in the April event in Guangzhou, will play again. The list includes Yan Zi, Zheng Jie, Sun Tiantian, Liu Nannan, Li Ting, Li Na and Liu Jingjing.
The team manager Wang Guanghe said, there is a big gap between the Chinese and Russian teams in terms of skill, world rankings and match experience. At present, they are ranked 229-544 in the singles in the world and 161-433 in doubles.
"It is a good opportunity for us to learn from the world top teams," said Zhang Xiaoning, vice-president of China Tennis Association.
The Chinese side will also take this chance to prepare for the Asian Games in the autumn and the 2004 Olympics.
The match between China and Russia will be staged at the Beijing International Tennis Centre.
(China Daily July 8, 2002)
