qualifying day 1, atp china open

i just came back from the saturday free 'open day' (so i was told). i didn't expect to see too many players, so i was pleased to see a few guys practising, such as ancic/hrbaty, srichaphan, schuettler... karlovic walked past just as i arrived.

rainer was very very popular with the autograph seeking crowd when he left the courts! i am guessing that 90% didn't know who he was but he was very nice chatting to a few fans whom he knew.

people were still eagerly awaiting ancic when i left but he's working hard today and looked like he would go for a 2 hour session.

the website says marcos baghdatis was the first of the 'big names' to arrive in beijing, but too bad i did not see him this afternoon.

the draw has also come out on the atp website... the first round match between ancic and feliciano lopez should be highly anticipated by fans :)

seeded players:

1. LJUBICIC, Ivan


2. DAVYDENKO, Nikolay


3. BAGHDATIS, Marcos


4. ANCIC, Mario


5. HRBATY, Dominik


6. SRICHAPHAN, Paradorn


7. KARLOVIC, Ivo


8. LEE, Hyung-Taik

the first 4 are top 10 players so it's a very respectable list... however considering LEE is ranked in the 80s... it's kind of funny. you'd expect the early rounds should be pretty predictable. hopefully there'll be a highly quality final! lol