China's Olympic tennis gold medalist Sun Tiantian has been given a wildcard entry into the main draw of the China Open starting on Saturday.

 

The wild cards were also given to Sun's teammates, former Australian and Wimbledon Open quarter-finalist Zheng Jie in women's singles, Sun Peng and Wang Jr. Yu in men's singles, Zeng Shaoxuan/Yu Xinyuan and Sun Peng/Wang Jr. Yu in men's doubles, as well as Li Na/Peng Shuai in women's doubles in the main draw of the 1.1 million US dollars tournament.

 

Sun, 23, whose giant-killing run in Athens paired with compatriot Li Ting brought China first-ever Olympic tennis gold, reached first career singles quarter-finals at first event of the season at Hyderabad, defeating Nemeckova in the first round and the No. 6 seed Tanasugarn in next match before losing to second-seeded Groenefeld.

 

Sun, partnered by Li, then failed to beat Yan Zi/Zheng Jie to finish as runner-up in doubles for second straight year at Hyderabad, before the Olympic winning pair won doubles titles at Estoril in April and New York in August, summing up their career glories to six doubles and six singles wins at WTA Tour.

 

Despite the victories in WTA Tour, the native of Henan Province now trying for a revival in rankings after slumping from a high of number 94th to 180th in the world with a 15-11 win-loss record in singles this season.

 

The 2005 China Open, which initiated last year in Beijing drawing the participations of Russian tennis icons Maria Sharapova and Marat Safin, will be slated from September 10 to 25. The men's singles champion will earn 69,200 dollars, while the women's singles champion will get 93,000 dollars.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2005)