Rafa rocks but China’s got talent

Written by: Staff on 29th October 2010

Rafa rocks but China’s got talent

Rafael Nadal (ESP) |

If it’s October, it must be Shanghai, another stop on the endless loop that is the ATP World Tour.

Allegedly, the tour is linear and it ends in the east end of London at the vast 02 Arena, home of the ATP World Tour Finals in November. Hang on; sorry, that should read: the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Note to Barclays: most sponsors hand out free samples of their product in order to persuade the mercenary hacks to mention their name. Given that you nice folk at Barclays run a bank, a large wad of used fifties (non-sequential numbers, please) would not go amiss. You can put them in a branded bag if you like, none of us would mind. Would you like me to mention Barclays again? Barclays. There you go.

Anyway – the season is supposed to come to a natural conclusion at the ATP Finals and yet by the time the fit and the famous, the bold and the brave, have reached London’s docklands, they are already talking about their training schedules in the off-season and everyone is looking forward to Doha, Chennai, the Hopman Cup and, ultimately, the Australian Open. As they reach the end of 2010, they are already picking up the reins of 2011 and so the endless loop continues.

But Shanghai – or to give it its full name: the Shanghai Rolex Masters (we at 10sballs.com like to keep a sponsor happy, especially a posh one) – is not just a regular tour stop. Shanghai is different. China is different. Oh, my, is it different.

For a start, Shanghai is packed. Depending on which report you read, the population of this city (and it’s not the biggest city in China, not by any means) is between 20 million and 27 million. And most of them appear to be standing in front of me whenever I’m in a hurry to get somewhere.

Personal space does not exist here and slow moving Westerners may find themselves trampled in the rush when the lights change at a pedestrian crossing or should they – foolishly – try to walk against the flow on the sidewalk. Yours truly was once stuck in a taxi when several people walked over the car as we sat, in gridlocked traffic, on a pedestrian crossing as the lights changed. The taxi driver didn’t bat an eyelid; I may never be the same again.

Then there is the language. To Western ears, Chinese, be it Mandarin, Cantonese or Shanghaiese, sounds like a very aggressive language. Then again, when you are living cheek-by-jowl with 1.3 billion other people, you may have to raise your voice from time to time in order to be heard. But as a result, press conferences become rather more fraught than usual as the Chinese journalists to not beat about the bush. “What’s the problem with you in the tiebreak?” or “Why you play so bad?” they ask of a top player when he has just lost. Even the praise sounds different. As one Shanghai hack announced to the Mighty Fed when he made his first visit to the city: “Roger, we love you for your big tennis and your big nose!”. Life in China certainly takes some getting used to.

A quick squint at the local papers reveals a whole new world. For example, the winner of “China’s Got Talent” (yes, the franchise has spread this far) is a gentleman by the name of Liu Wei. He plays the piano. With his feet. Because he’s got no arms. The paper omitted to run the back story to explain how Mr Liu came to have no arms and yet still played the piano, but the local readership did not seem to care.

The story ran under the tactful headline: “Armless pianist takes China’s “talent” title”. Oh, and he beat a seven-year-old stand up comic to claim the prize. You could not make this stuff up. The champion could now go on to win a three-month residency in Las Vegas. We can only hope that someone takes Mr Liu to one side and tells him what Las Vegas is really like. And that someone takes Las Vegas to one side and explains what Mr Liu is really like and that they should treat this talented gentleman with due respect and appreciation. We can but hope.

But once you recover from the initial shock, you soon learn that everyone is very friendly and more than willing to help. This is a fascinating country and Shanghai is a great town. That is what the Shanghai Rolex Masters is hoping the outside world will eventually realise.

The players love the place, mainly because they are all treated like kings and their every wish is catered for while the locals queue for hours outside the hotel in the hope of getting a glimpse of their heroes. Alas, these same locals do not flock to the Qi Zhong stadium to watch these same heroes actually play but given that it has chucked it down with rain for the past few days, you can hardly blame them.

Even those who do brave the hour long commute to the suburbs and the fancy new stadium do not hang around for the matches, not unless Rafa is playing. If Rafa is practising, it is mayhem around his court (and that is when the personal space issue reaches new and quite staggering heights) but even if a Chinese player is doing something remarkable in the main draw, nobody really takes much notice.

Part of the problem could be the ticket prices. The cheapest centre court ticket for the early rounds comes in at $24. That is not a bad price by Western standards but in Shanghai the average wage is $95 a month. As a result, spending a week’s wages on one day at the tennis is beyond most people. The ex-pats have more cash to flash but they are all in high-powered jobs and cannot really afford to take a day off to watch boys in shorts chasing after yellow, fluffy balls.

But back to the Chinese miracle workers – Yan Bai is the star of the tournament so far. He walloped Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday and earned himself the chance to play Andy Murray in the second round.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the 21-year-old Yan was lurking in the 700s on the world rankings list. Then he won two consecutive Futures events, hoiked his ranking up 277 spots to No.465 and earned himself a wild card into the Masters. Presented with a chance to impress, he grabbed it and now cannot quite believe what he has done.

“It’s my first time in to top‑level tournament so it’s really an unexpected performance for me,” Yan said. “I would say this is my best match since I started playing tennis. Of course, Stepanek is the strongest player I have ever competed with. I’m very happy about it. I’m very excited. It’s hard to control my excited feelings, even at this moment.”

He was having a bit of a problem controlling his ego, too. The male Chinese players still lag some way behind their female compatriots but, no matter, Yan reckons he is one of the big boys now. When the local journalists chatted to him after his press conference and had the temerity to ask for his cell phone number, they were sharply rebuffed. “If you want to speak to me, you’ll have to go through the ATP,” he said with a flounce. If that’s the way Roger and Rafa do it, that’s the way our Bai is going to do it from now on.

Poor Mr Yan – when the Rolex Masters packs up its logos and leaves town, he will find himself back in Nanjing with not a soul to talk to (they haven’t got his phone number, after all). He will also still have a ranking so far removed from another Masters event that this week will seem like little more than a dream. We can only hope that he will learn from his mistake but, unfortunately, by then, it may be too late.

Topics: 02 Arena, Atp World Tour, Australian Open, Barclays, Endless Loop, Fifties, Free Samples, Hacks, Hopman Cup, Natural Conclusion, Pedestrian Crossing, Personal Space, Reins, Rolex, Sequential Numbers, Shanghai China, Sidewalk, Training Schedules, Wad, Westerners