Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2011

The opening match of the tournament was a face-off between Team Europe’s Aravane Rezai, resplendent in gold and black, and Team Asia-Pacific’s Zhang Ling, Hong Kong’s home-grown player. Despite a good performance, Ling lost the match in 2 sets, with Aravane taking it 6-3, 6-0.Ling won the toss and served first but was broken in a very close game. Aravane’s strong forehand returns and well-placed serves led her to win the following 2 games but at 3-0 Ling broke back to take it to 3-1. With that boost of confidence and a strong serve, Ling took the 5^th game, making it 3-2. An exciting 6^th game of call challenges, cracking shots and the net judge almost getting hit in the head by a supersonic ball, ended 4-2 to Aravane. The crowd cheered wildly for Ling as the players went into the 7^th game but Ling lost her serve, only to go on to break Aravane to take the score to 5-3. Aravane started the next game strongly with some fantastic return-of-serves but Ling fought back with an ace. After a closely fought game, Aravane eventually pounded a winner into the corner to take the first set 5-3.Despite some beautiful serve-and-returns by Ling in the 2^nd set, Aravane ultimately proved the stronger player, not letting Ling take a single game off her. She fought every inch of the way, at one point retaliating with 2 aces in a row after dropping some points. It was undoubtedly Aravane’s attacking game and attitude that won her the match. “It is very great to play here,” she said after the match, “I had a lot of fun and I hope that will continue.”