Factbox on Jiang Hongwei

Date of birth: November 1957

Hometown: Jiangsu province

Biography: Jiang began his athletic career as a badminton player.

He was among the first group of tennis players in China at the age of 14 after tennis was put back into China's sports development program in 1972 after a break during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). He was one of 25 members of a Chinese delegation sent by the sports bureau to Romania to learn tennis.

Jiang had to quit the sport due to a wrist injury. He was then sent to the US to get tennis-coaching training from 1984 to 1985. After returning to China, he became the youngest coach for the Chinese national women's tennis team.

He resigned after spending five years with the team but continued to teach tennis for the Jiangsu provincial team and then for two-and-a-half years in Thailand.

He was chosen by the CTA in an open search for the national team head coach at the end of 2004. He revealed he will probably quit the job after August's Beijing Olympics.

(China Daily 02/27/2008 page23)