MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- A few years ago, the Russians were coming. Now it's the Chinese who are shaping up as the next big thing in women's tennis. Seven Chinese players were in the main singles draw of the Australian Open this week. As of Tuesday, two were left after first-round matches, most of them losing to seeded players. In 2002, there were no Chinese women in the top 100 on the WTA Tour. Four years later, there are three in the top 50 and four in the top 200. Li Na took defending champion Serena Williams to three sets on Monday. Sun Tiantian, half of the gold-medal doubles team at the Athens Olympics, gave third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo a tough time Tuesday before losing in three sets. "Everyone talks about the Russians, I always thought the Chinese have a great slew of players coming up," Williams said before her match. "Not only are they in the draw, but they're actually doing well." Well, not so well this week. On Monday, three went out. Russian Elena Vesnina beat Li Ting 6-2, 6-3, Ashley Harkleroad of the United States defeated Peng Shuai 6-4, 6-1 and Williams beat Li Na 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-2. Mauresmo beat Sun 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, while Anna Chakvetadze of Russia defeated Zheng Jie 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday. But in other matches, Yan Zi upset 11th-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France 6-7 (5) , 6-2, 6-3 and qualifier Yuan Meng defeated Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4, 6-2. Sun, Yan and Yuan were all making their Australian Open singles debuts. "It hasn't been the best tournament for us, but we are still optimistic," Peng said after a practice session Tuesday. "We had to play some pretty tough players." While they have not come close to winning a Grand Slam like the new wave of Russians did in 2004 -- Anastasia Myskina (French Open) Maria Sharapova (Wimbledon) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (U.S. Open) -- there have been some Chinese successes. Last year, Peng reached No. 31 -- the highest ranking by a Chinese woman -- and beat Kim Clijsters and Elena Dementieva. Li Ting teamed with Sun for the gold in 2004, while Zheng and Yan Zi won three doubles titles last season. Zheng won singles and doubles titles in 2004 at Hobart, Australia, and Sun has six doubles titles overall. The Chinese presence is in contrast to 2002, when Australian Open officials got a call that two players had shown up unannounced with their coach and wanted to play doubles. "They hadn't entered, they just showed up on the doorstep," said Australian Open official John Lindsay. "We thought they were here, they've come all this way, we should give them a doubles wild card." They did, allowing Li Ting and Sun to begin their preparations for the Olympic gold in Athens more than two years later. --

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