Give Chinese guys a hand

Let's give the Chinese men's tennis players a little bit of applause. We are now getting used to the women players having success on the tour, but their male counterparts finally raised a few eyebrows with a good showing at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, an ATP 1000 event.

World No 465 Bai Yan upset Czech veteran Radek Stepanek, a former world top-10 player, in straight sets and became the second player from the Chinese mainland to claim a victory in the main draw of the Shanghai event. Former national champion Zeng Shaoxuan was the first to do so, defeating Israeli Dudi Sela in three sets last year. Later world No 308 Zhang Ze was close to another upset victory before losing to former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic in three sets.

As I watched Bai take on world No 4 Andy Murray in a second-round matchup on Wednesday, I suddenly realized the level of men's tennis in China was not as bad as I had thought.