China plays down golden hopes for women's tennis at Doha

BEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) China has hosed down hopes of a golden clean sweep for its much-fancied women's tennis team at Doha, saying fatigue and waning form could take their toll on the medal count, local media reported today.

Winning one title would be a more ''realistic goal'' at the Asian Games, Gao Shenyang, deputy director of the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA), told the Beijing Youth Daily.

''Saying we can win all gold medals -- women's team, singles, doubles and mixed doubles -- the media are too exaggerated,'' Gao said.

''Our players performed better in the first half of this year.

They will not be in their best form in December.'' China will field its strongest line-up at Doha, including Asia's highest-ranking woman, world number 21 Li Na, and world number 33 Zheng Jie, in the singles.

Zheng will also team up with long-time partner Yan Zi in the doubles. The biggest threat the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles champions are likely to face is from their Athens gold medal-winning compatriots, Li Ting and Sun Tiantian.

Li, Zheng, Yan and number 55-ranked Peng Shuai will compete in the team competition, while Yan and Sun will team up with Zeng Shaoxuan and Yu Xinyuan in the mixed doubles.

Gao, who rated Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama as the biggest obstacle to singles gold for Wimbledon quarter finalist Li, said the Asian Games would provide an Olympic progress report.

''We regard the Asian Games as a mid-term exam. Mostly it is a chance to gain some experience for the 2008 Olympics.'' REUTERS AY BD1612