(Source: Xinhua)
Spain’s Rafael Nadal jubilates after scoring a point against Richard Gasquet of France during the opening match at the ATP Masters Cup Shanghai, east China, Nov. 11, 2007. Nadal won the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. (Xinhua Photo)SHANGHAI, Nov. 12 - Spaniard Rafael Nadal overcame a slow start to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet in full sets in the opener of the Tennis Masters Cup 2007 here in Shanghai on Sunday.

Gasquet, only 15 days Nadal’s junior and in his first Masters Cup appearance, totally overwhelmed Nadal in the first set but failed to keep his consistency, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the blockbuster Gold Group clash after a little more than two hours.

World number two Nadal, who reached the semifinals last year in his first Tennis Masters Cup appearance, looked muscle-bound and hence under-performing in the opening set, dropping serve in the eighth game after some sloppy play, but came back quickly in the remaining time.

The two 21-year-olds, who have clashed three times before with the Spaniard winning all meetings, raised up respective game later, producing some impressive tennis to amuse the full-packed Qi ZhongTennis Stadium located in southern Shanghai.

In a roller coaster second set, Nadal broke, was broken but then broke again in successive games before clinching it 6-3, pumping his fists in celebration.

After that, Nadal seemed to have the whole match in control while Gasquet fell off the pace and he capitulated in the fifth game of the third set, hitting a forehand long on the second breakpoint to send Nadal 3-2 up and serving.

The bull-like youngster never looked back again en route to the happy ending.

The prestigious year-ending tournament is played in round robin format with 8 players/teams divided into two groups of four, with 8 seeds to be determined by the ATP 2007 Race and Stanford ATP Doubles Race standings on Nov. 5.

In singles’ part, world number one Roger Federer from Switzerland is in Red Group with Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick from the United States, and debutant Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.

The more competitive Gold Group boasts Nadal and three of the four players, namely No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain and No. 8 Gasquet — making their first career appearances at the elite tournament.

All matches shall be the best of three tie-break sets, except for the singles final, which shall be the best of five tie-break sets.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)
Ace tennis players from all over the world attend the ceremony in Shanghai on Saturday, November 10, 2007, before the 2007 ATP Masters Cup kicks off. [Photo: sina.com]Nov. 11 - Tennis elites from all over the world received a red carpet welcome on Saturday night in Shanghai as the 2007 ATP Masters Cup kicked off.

Eight players who will compete in the singles event attended the ceremony at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, where exuberant fans had gathered to cheer on their idols.

This will be the fourth time the ATP season-ending championship is held in the city.

Every season the ATP’s eight top ranked players qualify for the event that includes both singles and doubles competitions.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal will clash with Richard Gasquet from France on Sunday, with David Ferrer taking on Novak Djokovic.

Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 9 ¨C The State Food and Drug Administration and national administrative bodies in public security, industry and commerce, customs and sports will jointly launch a nationwide campaign to check the operation of companies that produce sports drugs such as protein assimilation preparations or peptide hormones. With this campaign, China aims to regulate the market order for sports drug production industry so as to create a fair sports environment for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, said Yan Jiangying, spokesperson at the State Food and Drug Administration, on Thursday.

During the campaign, some key places, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai and Shandong where the Olympic events will be held, will be given greater attention in supervision. In launching the campaign, it is hoped that companies involved in sports drug production will have no illegal production or operation activites, Yan said.

The compaign will proceed in two stages. The first stage will last from now on until the end of this year. During the first stage, China will crack down the illegal operations among drug production companies and close down companies involved in illegal operaton. The second stage will last from January next year to the closing of the Olympic Games. During the second stage, China will consolidate the achievements made in the first stage by regulating the market order for sports drug production, Yan said.

Companies that illegally produce protein assimilation preparations or peptide hormones will be shut down according to related laws and chemical goods production companies that make these drugs without government’s approval will be ordered to close down their business in this aspect. Companies that illegally import and export these drugs will be punished by the China Customs Office and those who violate state laws should bear criminal responsibilities. The sports administrative bodies will be mainly responsible for providing information related with anti-doping work and related technical guidance for the campaign, Yan noted.

(Source: Xinhua)Nov. 9 - Houston Rockets all-star center Yao Ming, fresh off a sterling performance in a victory over San Antonio on Tuesday, will play against 7-foot Bucks rookie and countryman Yi Jianlian on Friday night in Houston.

According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, more than 100 million Chinese fans are expected to watch the game via a national telecast on CCTV or regional telecasts on networks in Shanghai and Guangdong province, to be aired live on Saturday morning in China.

Yao is from Shanghai, and Yi played the past five seasons for the Guangdong Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.

The report said by quoting Bucks guard Charlie Bell: “Yi and Yao. I’m sure there’s going to be more Chinese media there than American media. Just to see how he (Yi) is handling it. Sometimes you look at him, you don’t know he’s that young, just the way he plays out there on the court.”

Yi scored 12 points and added four rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots in the Bucks’ 112-85 victory over Toronto on Tuesday. That followed his 16-point, eight rebound performance on Saturday in a victory over the Chicago Bulls.

The newspaper also quoted Bucks guard Michael Redd as saying “we’ve just got to keep him focused, though. You’ve got to play basketball; it’s Houston vs. Milwaukee. It’s not Yi vs. Yao, even though it will be built up like that.”

Yao scored 28 points and also had 13 rebounds and six assists in the Rockets’ 89-81 victory over defending champion Spurs on Tuesday. “Yao definitely is a force now. You’ve got to double-team him now,” said Redd.

Houston is off to an impressive 4-1 start under new coach Rick Adelman, with its only loss coming at Dallas on Monday night.

“Houston is one of those teams, when they’re healthy, they’re tough to beat,” Bell said.

(Source: China Daily)Nov.9 - China Thursday slammed media reports as “a total rumor” that the Bible would be prohibited at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

The Catholic News Agency published a report the Bible will be banned in the Olympic Village, citing an Italian newspaper.

“As far as I know, Chinese religious affairs authorities and the Beijing Olympic organizers did not and would not issue such a rule and this is a total rumor,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday.

“According to the Chinese laws, foreigners are allowed to bring in religious objects or materials, be it print or audio or video, for personal use.” And there would be no change in the legal decree during the Olympic Games next year, Liu said at a regular press briefing Thursday.

Rights of religious freedom in China, which also apply to foreigners who live in the country, are protected by the Chinese Constitution and relevant laws, the spokesman said.

Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media center Thursday also condemned the report, saying it was an intentional distortion of the truth.

Li said that a religious service center will be set up in the Olympic Village and religious services, from Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu to Buddhist, will be available to athletes next summer.

A temporary Catholic church will also be set up in the Olympic Village and all churches in Beijing will be open to Catholic visitors, Liu Bainian, vice-president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, said.

Religious services and information will be available in Beijing and each of the six co-host cities, Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, told China Daily last month.

China has so far published more than 42 million copies of the Bible in various languages, according to Ye.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman added: “There are always some people who do not want to see China host a successful Olympic Games. This is against the wishes of the people all over the world, as this is a grand gala for them”.

(Source: Xinhua)Nov.8 - Organizers of next year’s Olympic Games have worked out contingency plans to deal with possible bad weather during the world’s prime sporting event, an official said.

“We have already had a scheme to cope with various weather conditions during the Games period,” Yang Shu’an, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), told a press conference Wednesday.

At least six additional observation points have been set up around the Olympic Green, where a cluster of Olympic venues are located, and other Olympic-related sites for weather surveillance, said Yang.

“Weather forecast will be updated every three hours during the games period so that we can make timely decisions on whether the contingency plan should be put into force,” he said.

China’s national meteorological bureau has promised extreme accuracy of weather forecast during the Aug. 8-24 Games, saying weather forecasts would tell people when and where rain is to happen while vague words like the rainfall probability are absolutely banned.

BOCOG’s precaution mechanism proved effective in last summer’s test events, said Yang.

“For example, we had a specific plan to deal with typhoon before the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong in August,” he said.

“And when the typhoon really hit Hong Kong just on the event’s opening day, we immediately informed the audiences and athletes about the rescheduling plan. Actually, we were glad to have the typhoon because it provides us a good opportunity to test our readiness to deal with contingencies.”