(adds Kirilenko result, Zheng quotes)
By Nick Mulvenney
BEIJING, Sept 19 - China's number one Li Na
dropped four service games but still managed to reach the second
round of the China Open with a laboured 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.
Russian defending champion Maria Kirilenko, seeded eighth,
opened her campaign with a 7-6 6-3 victory over Argentine Gisela
Dulko and will next face China's Peng Shuai.
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, a first
round loser to Craybas here last year, 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.
"I was satisfied with the match, the injury affected my
mobility a little but it's not that serious," Zheng said, adding
that she was enjoying playing in her own country.
"I just feel excited and with my parents watching, that
gives me more motivation," she said. "I feel like hostess here,
all the other players are asking me where to go shopping and
where they can get DVDs for a dollar."
(additional reporting by Liu Zhen)