The Chinese women's team plays against the Australian women's team at the first game of Good Luck Beijing 2008 Water Polo China Open at Ying Tung Natatorium in Beijing on Tuesday, March 18, 2008.

The Chinese women's water polo team lost to the Australian counterparts 6-9 in its first game at the Good Luck Beijing 2008 Water Polo China Open, which started on Tuesday at Ying Tung Natatorium in Beijing.

Despite the defeat, the hosts China showed convincing progress in the game, the closest between the two sides in recent years.

An Australian athlete, who played with Chinese team members during the Spring Festival in Australia, confirmed China's improvement and highly applauded the performance of the Chinese rivals in the match.

"I was very impressed by the Chinese team. I think they came out really hard and we were a very good competition today."

As a very young team that was established less than five years ago, the Chinese women's team hoped to learn more techniques and experiences from world leading teams such as the Aussies.

The Chinese goalkeeper Yang Jun expressed that the valuable gain from the game was that they learnt a lot from their opponent.

Yang also said the Chinese team has made great progress, which contributed to the narrower gap in scores in Tuesday's game.

"It's mainly because our abilities have improved. We used to be totally restricted by them and were very passive on attacks in previous matches, but now we have made great progress in both attacks and defense."

As the Olympic Games is approaching, Yang said the biggest difficulty is accomplishing their task within the short time, but she expressed they will make efforts step by step with patience.

With formal trainings that started only from the end of 2004 with athletes transferred from other sports like swimming, the Chinese women's team now ranks the second in Asia and won the second place in the World Youth Championship last year.

On the other hand, the Chinese men's team, which won the ninth place in Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and the top place of Doha Asian Games in 2006, also expects better place for the Beijing Olympics.

The men's competitions at the tournament will commence on Wednesday with the Chinese national team, China's Shanghai team and Guangdong team and the Australian team attending.