China Open - Beijing - 2008

Ah, the China Open in Beijing sure brings back memories!

I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the China Open back in 2006, while I was studying Mandarin there.

My best friend's girlfriend's cousin was working with one of the main sponsors there and we got to sit in the corporate box for one of the night matches. I remember it was between Venus Williams and another player, who's name escapes me at this moment. This was followed by (the then up-and-coming) Chinese doubles pair, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi.

Unfortunately, the previous Sharapova match tickets went to the sponsor's VIP client, sigh)! Anyway, the last time I watched a "live" tennis match was when Michael Chang played in Malaysia in the early 90's in Malaysia, so, I was more than happy to to catch ANY match live at that point!

The China Open is a cosy little tournament where the stadium is small enough for fans, even in the upper tiers, to get a close view of their favourite tennis stars.

The Chinese crowd are also more vocal than European crowds (much like their US counterparts) and needless to say, they were rooting for the home-grown Chinese pair and Venus!

Both sets of players won comfortably in the end and I'm sure the crowd (and myself included) attributed this to their keen support!

It's a pity that I'm not in China to watch this match live again (and it's annoying that it's NOT being shown on Astro (Asia's satellite provider) but I'll try my best to keep you updated on the news and results from the China Open 2008.

The China Open is from 20 September till 28 September 2008 and visit the Official China Open Website for more details about the tournament.