China's top women's tennis player will compete at the US Open next month after a lightning recovery from a rib injury, the China Tennis Association (CTA) said yesterday.

Li Na's return after her lightning six-week rehabilitation will be a shot in the arm for the country's elite women's players, who so far this year have failed to reproduce the form that thrust them into the limelight in 2006.

"Li has returned to the team's training base in Beijing this week and she will play the US Open next month for sure," promised CTA vice-director Gao Shenyang.

"I think it may take a couple of matches to gain her feeling.

"She is still recovering from the injury but it is a lot faster than we expected."

Her injury was thought to have ended all hope for the women at the US Open because her team mate Zheng Jie was scheduled for ankle surgery.

"Li's injury was a blow for the whole team and now I am happy she is back - it is a good thing for the team and herself," Gao said.

The 25-year-old ace injured her rib at a Wimbledon warm-up tournament and missed the Grand Slam as well as a number of hard-court tournaments in North America.

The London scratching robbed her of up to 292 points - out of a possible 1333 up for grabs at 22 tournaments - and saw her ranking slip from 18 to 20.

Li is scheduled to join the squad in early August in the United States for two tournaments before the nation's tennis showpiece on August 27.

The Chinese squad will also strive for qualification points towards their Beijing Olympic dream as the home game's rankings system begins this month.

The players are under intense pressure to regain the sensational form that helped them bag twin grand slam titles and scale the rankings in 2006.

Zheng and partner Yan Zi are yet to win a major title this year, while Li and single's ace Peng Shuai both have suffered injuries.

Li was the first Chinese to reach the quarterfinals of a grand slam tournament on her first appearance at Wimbledon last year and also has the distinction of becoming the highest-ranked countrywoman when she soared to 16 in January.

But her modest clay court season, which included a third-round finish at the French Open, followed her early departure from a WTA Tier I event with abdominal problems.

Zheng and Yan have fared no better, winning the lowly Family Circle Cup in Charleston (US) and losing to Taipei pair Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung on three consecutive occasions.

They have slipped from No.3 to No 7 in the doubles rankings.

Acknowledging the team's slump for the first time, head coach Jiang Hongwei said remedies were desperately being sought.

"We need to conduct our training and competing plan in a more scientific way," he conceded.

"We will have some talks with experts and other coaches this week. If we cannot overcome the current bottleneck on the tour, we will have problems preparing for the Beijing Olympics."

Jiang noted injury was not the only reason for the setback.

"It is partly due to the injuries, but I think it is more of a mental problem as their desire is not as great as last year.

"Women's doubles should be our advantage on the Tour, but now our edge has almost disappeared.

"The team is a bit low right now; they need some encouragement and to get back the determination they had.

"We did make some improvements in technique but we also want to strengthen the mental things.

"There is still a gap mentally with the foreign players."

The squad is currently competing at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in the US, where Peng has advanced to the second rounds in both singles and doubles.

The men's team, led by National Games champion Zeng Shaoxuan, is in Italy for tournaments below the ATP Open level.

(China Daily July 26, 2007)