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Reuters 18y

Tennis-Li and Zheng continue China charge in Beijing

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING, Sept 19 - China's number one Li Na
dropped four service games but still managed to labour through
to the second round of the China Open with a 6-3 6-4 victory
over Russian Vera Dushevina on Tuesday.

Zheng Jie became the fourth Chinese to reach the second
round when she downed American Jill Craybas 6-4 6-3, but her
doubles partner Yan Zi crashed out 7-5 6-2 to Croatian
qualifier Jelena Kostanic.

Li blew hot and cold in her one and a half hour contest,
mixing a few brilliant winners with uncertain service and a
host of unforced errors on the Centre Court at the Beijing
Tennis Centre.

"Playing at home makes me feel nervous, it's very different
from playing abroad," the 24-year-old seventh seed told
reporters.

The world number 23 opened the match by surrendering her
service with a double fault, won the next five games at a
canter, stumbled again in the eighth before conjuring up a
beautiful down the line winner to win the set.

Her problems continued in the second set where she broke
the teenaged qualifier almost at will, but also gave up two
service games and ended up scrambling through to a last 16
appointment with another Russian, Elena Vesnina.

"The first match is always the most difficult, especially
against an opponent who has already played three matches in the
qualifiers," added Li, whose new tattoo of a rose excited much
interest among the local media.

FIRST TITLE

The only previous meeting between Li and Dushevina came at
Guangzhou in 2004, when the Chinese announced her return to
professional tennis after a two-year break by winning her first
and only career WTA title as a 145th-ranked qualifier.

Since then she has become the first Chinese to reach the
quarter-final of a grand slam, the first from her country to
breach the world top 20 and led her country into the Fed Cup
world group for the first time.

Zheng, who has already won two singles titles and two grand
slam doubles crowns with Yan this year, showed few signs of the
ankle problem that has dogged her in recent weeks against the
experienced Craybas.

She wrapped up the first set with a stinging service return
and came back from a break down in the second to set up a
second round tie with former world number one Lindsay Davenport
or Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

Yan, whose compatriots Sun Tiantian and Peng Shuai reached
the second round on Monday, blamed over-eagerness for her
defeat to Kostanic.

"I had plenty of chances but I made the wrong choices and
let them all go," she said.

The top four seeds, led by France's world number one Amelie
Mauresmo and last week's Bali champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of
Russia, were given first round byes.

(additional reporting by Liu Zhen)

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