‘Maybe they’re all playing ping-pong,’ says Peng Shuai at Wimbledon as she tries to explain the lack of male Chinese tennis players
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Peng Shuai said the dearth of male Chinese tennis players was down to the strength of ping pong and badminton, as the country awaits a breakthrough in men’s tennis.
Peng said Chinese tennis had made huge strides in the last 10 years, first with Li Ting and Sun Tiantian winning women’s doubles gold at the 2004 Olympics and Li Na winning the 2011 French Open to become the first Chinese Grand Slam winner.
That has brought a raft of top tournaments to China and inspired the next generation of Chinese players.
But the surge is somewhat lopsided. While there are five Chinese women in the top 100 and nine in the top 200, led by number 31 Zhang Shuai and Peng, the top Chinese man in 224-ranked Di Wu.
“Maybe they’ve all gone to play ping pong or badminton! China is really strong in those sports,” said a jovial Peng, the world number 37.
“In the future maybe we’ll have some boys coming through, because it does take time,” as the sport continues to spread.