Having picked up tennis at the age of eight, Peng Shuai is not considered an early starter - but that did not stop her becoming the first Chinese woman to break into the sport's hallowed upper circle.

Peng's technique derives more from Europe and the US than any of her compatriots, and now the 22-year-old plans on unleashing her volley of inter-continental moves to deadly effect on her Olympic debut.

"This would be my first Olympics, so if I can get the opportunity to play for my country, I will be ecstatic," said the world No 70. In doubles, she ranks higher at No 24.

According to International Tennis Federation rules, the top 56-ranked men and women as of June 9 will qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games.

This gives Peng a Mission: Impossible-like task of hauling herself up 15 spots to make the cut, but she has at least three tournaments in which to do so, including this month's French Open.

Yet with teammates Li Na and Yan Zi currently within qualifying range, Peng could theoretically snap up the wildcard on offer to China as host of the Games if she fails to scrape through on merit alone.

The same logic applies for the doubles, which has a steeper cut-of, meaning that only players who rank world No 10 or better are eligible for the Olympics.

"I hope I can qualify for both. I will move towards that goal on a step-by-step basis," she said.

The women's doubles tennis crown has become a major Olympic target for Team China after Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won the title in Athens, putting them as the defending champions.

Peng hopes to fill the retired Li's shoes and repeat the feat in her own backyard by drawing on Sun's rich experience.

It seems that tennis talent runs in Peng's family.

She was introduced to the sport over a decade ago by her uncle, Zhang Fan. Zhang, once a well-known tennis player himself, bought her some tennis lessons and unwittingly kept the family legacy alive.

"I had not thought of becoming an athlete until I picked up tennis with my uncle," she said.

"I was a little bit weak at that time, so my parents sent me for tennis classes to get me in shape. Then, I found that I liked it and decided to turn professional at 18.

"Tennis requires not only technique and strength but a strong mind and wisdom."

After turning pro in 2004, she quickly jumped from world No 108 to 86 after reaching her first WTA Tour quarterfinal at the Cincinnati Open in August of that year.

She ended the year world-ranked 73 and continued her meteoric rise to hit No 31 in 2005, her breakthrough year.

Peng advanced to her first WTA Tour Tier I semifinal that August in San Diego by posting straight-set upsets over Russia's Elena Dementieva and Kim Clijsters of Belgium, both of whom ranked among the world's top 10.

Her victory over Clijsters came only a few months after Peng had returned to the Tour from injury. It ended the Belgian's 26-match winning streak on hard courts and came just weeks before Clijsters was crowned world No 1.

Clijsters said at the time she believed Peng was capable of breaking inside the top three.

The result saw Peng tie the best WTA ranking by a Chinese player up until that time and beat compatriot Li Na's best of No 33 registered that same summer.

"Going abroad and experiencing high-level tennis competitions early benefited me a lot. Different foreign coaches also helped to make progress," she said.

Last year, Chinese American ATP player Michael Chang added his name to the list when he coached her for about six months.

"Chang is a great player and he gave me a lot of help in improving my technique," she said.

The outstanding performances also drew more sponsors for Peng, as she was invited to be the ambassador for Beijing Olympic sponsor UPS last year.

However, the young player did not remain at her best form for long. She has rarely made it past the first round in recent tournaments and could not hold off Spain in the semifinals of the World Cup last month.

"I've improved a lot but it's hard to always keep at your best," she said.

"The problem is I was thinking too much about the result, rather than the process, which is more important."

She said it was important not to let the pressure get to her ahead of the Olympics.

"Sun is the defending doubles champion so I'm sure we'll have a lot of pressure to do well," she said. "But the charm of competitive sport is the uncertainty of who will win or lose.

"So we won't put much pressure on ourselves. We will just do our best."

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page16)