China Open Preview

BEIJING, Sept 17 - Rain wiped out nearly all of the programme on
the first day of the China Open on Monday, depriving former world
number one Martina Hingis of her first chance of taking centre
stage in the Chinese capital.

The 26-year-old Swiss, now ranked 18th in the world, was
scheduled to take on China's Olympic doubles champion Sun
Tiantian in the first round of the $600,000 WTA tournament
but the wet weather ruled out all but of a couple of hours of play.

Hingis is seeded fifth at the fourth China Open, which boasts three
top 10 players despite last week's withdrawal of world number one
Justine Henin with a respiratory complaint. Svetlana Kuznetsova,
the defending champion and top seed, will arrive in Beijing on a
high after leading Russia to a third Fed Cup title in four years
on Sunday.

Serbia's world number three Jelena Jankovic was effectively a
late replacement for Henin and heads the bottom half of the
draw in the search for her fifth title of the season.

The China Open was Lindsay Davenport's last tournament before
her short-lived retirement and the 31-year-old American will
be back in Beijing after Sunday's astonishing triumph in r
comeback event on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Last year Davenport went out in the quarter-finals to Amelie
Mauresmo when the Frenchwoman was in her pomp as world number
one and Australian Open and Wimbledon champion.

This year has been very different for Mauresmo and she will be
playing her first WTA tournament since Wimbledon after taking
time off to recapture her best form.

"I need to find back my shape before the European indoor season,"
she told a news conference on Monday.

"I don't have high expectations, I only want to get back playing
at my best as soon as possible ...
"I have been away from tennis for five or six weeks, but I have
been exercising."

Kuznetsova, Jankovic, Mauresmo and Russian fourth seed Elena
Dementieva have been given byes for the first round. China
hopes are thin in the absence of the injured Li Na and Zheng
Jie with Peng Shuai the best hope of local success. In one
first round match completed on Monday, Slovakia's Dominika
Cibulkova beat Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-0 6-7 6-1.

(Reuters)