Dent Plans Two-Week Romp at Beijing
(www.chinaopen.cn)
Updated: 2004-09-16 17:41

Besides fighting for a chance at overall victory during this week's China Open, big-hitting Taylor Dent has another – more personal - reason for wanting to do well at the inaugural edition of China’s showcase tournament.

Girlfriend Jennifer Hopkins will be in town next week to play the WTA tournament at the Beijing Tennis Centre and Dent will be modifying his own schedule in order to spend some quality time with his soul mate at a venue halfway around the world from their homes in America.

Dent, who tasted his first success in Asia a year ago with a trophy performance in Thailand, will be playing doubles at the ATP Challenger event next week, another part of this month's celebration of the game in Beijing.

But with his eye on this week's prize in the 2008 Olympic city, Dent is keen to perform well in quest of his fifth career title.

The Californian made a good start on a wet Tuesday in the capital, raining down 16 aces on his way into the second round at the expense of Australian Peter Luczak 6-3, 6-2.

Comprehensive victory over the 139th-ranked qualifier took little more than an hour, with Dent breaking the underdog three times while never facing a break point against his own serve.

The hardcourts of the new facility seem to be made for his game. And that's the way Dent likes it.

"I'm very happy with my serve," he said after moving into a second-round contest against Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who advanced on Monday's dry opening day. "When I serve well I'm tough to beat.

These conditions suit my game."

Nieminen has been making a recovery this summer from a wrist injury, and returned to action in time for the Olympics last month.

The victory pushed Dent to 23 wins, 18 defeats this season while journeyman Luczak, a 25-year-old, dropped to 3-5 as he lost for the second time to the American.

Due to the weather, the evening's opening ceremony, an elaborate celebration, was postponed in hopes of clearing and more favourable weather Wednesday.

The only other man to get through Tuesday on a day of 13 scheduled first-round matches was Israeli Noam Okun, who stopped British qualifier Arvind Parmar 6-3, 6-2 in a 72-minute rout.

Several of the tournaments biggest drawcards found themselves waiting out the weather. Among seeds rained off during the day were Spaniards Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero, the top two, Russian Marat Safin and David Nalbandian of Argentina. The China Open moved from Hong Kong SAR, where it was held through 2002. Ferrero beat Moya in that closing edition at the precursor of an event now considered one of the key building blocks to Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games.

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