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DOMESTIC stocks rose for a third day today, powered by insurers after the central bank raised interest rates, boosting returns on their fixed-income investments.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, jumped 1.15 percent, or 58.24 points, to close at 5,101.78 at 3pm today.

The index edged up 9.91 points this week as it opened at 5,007.29 at 9:30am on Monday.

Gainers in the Shanghai market outnumbered losers 671 to 84 while 91 were unchanged.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller mainland stock market, gained 1.36 percent, or 18.5 points, to 1,375.89.

China raised interest rates for a sixth time this year to cool decade-high inflation in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The benchmark one-year lending rate will increase to 7.47 percent, a nine-year high, from 7.29 percent, starting today, the People’s Bank of China said yesterday. The one-year deposit rate will rise to 4.14 percent from 3.87 percent.

Different from the five previous rate increases, the central bank lowered by 0.09 percent the interest rate for demand deposits - those that can be withdrawn at any time - to encourage savers to tie up their cash for longer periods rather than having it readily available to shift into shares or property.

Insurers benefit from the rate increase by using new premiums to buy fixed-income products that have higher yields

China Life, the nation’s biggest insurer, added 2.23 percent, or 1.28 yuan (17 US cents), to 58.60 yuan. Ping An Insurance, the second biggest, rose 2.68 percent, or 2.82 yuan, to 108.20 yuan. More than 50 percent of the assets of the two insurers are in fixed-income investments, according to Bloomberg News Service.

But the higher rate dampened property developers this morning on concern higher borrowing costs will curb profitability and deter home

purchases.

China Vanke Co, the nation’s biggest listed property developer, recovered from morning session’s 1.34 percent loss and fell 0.28 percent, or 0.08 yuan, to 28.30 yuan in the afternoon while Gemdale Corp, a Chinese developer that is allied with ING Groep NV, shed 1.94 percent, or 0.79 yuan, to 40 yuan.

Air China Ltd, the world’s biggest airline by market value, was among rising carriers on expectation a strengthening local currency will lower the costs of their foreign debt.

Air China, the world’s biggest airline by market value, jumped 3.71 percent, or 0.93 yuan, to 25.99 yuan while China Eastern, the nation’s third-largest carrier, added 2.18 percent, or 0.40 yuan, to 18.73 yuan. China Southern, the nation’s biggest carrier, climbed 4.77 percent, or 1.21 yuan, to finish at 26.56 yuan.

The yuan advanced as much as 0.2 percent to 7.3550 per dollar in Shanghai today, the highest since China ended a fixed peg to the dollar in 2005. A stronger yuan cuts the cost of airlines’ dollar denominated debt.

The yuan’s gain this year is almost twice as fast as the 3.4 percent pace in 2006. The currency appreciated more than 12 percent since July 2005 against the dollar.

Elsewhere, China Railway Group Ltd, the world’s third-largest construction company, rose 1.60 percent, or 0.16 yuan, to 10.13 yuan. The company may win a 40 billion yuan contract to build the high-speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai, Oriental Daily News reported.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia’s biggest oil refiner, also known as Sinopec, inched up 0.30 percent, or 0.07 yuan, to close at 23.11 yuan. The company said it has discovered gas at a field in northern China that has proven reserves of 43.4 billion cubic meters.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday that a new body “National Counter-Terrorism Authority” (NACTA) has been established to formulate and implement a comprehensive and effective counter-terrorism strategy, the official news agency APP reported.

Briefing the newsmen, Malik said the institution will keep data of terrorists, their handlers, trainers and other necessary details. It will also benefit from the experience of Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka in the field of de-radicalization and jail reforms.

He said presently scrutiny of about 2,000 persons is underway to determine how many to face trial and how many to be de-radicalized.

The minister said that there is proof about collusion of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaida and banned organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad in acts of terrorism in the country.

Referring to the recent surge in acts of terrorism, Malik said following success of the agencies in Swat of North West Frontier Province and tribal areas the hostile elements have brought into action their second tier cadres to destabilize the country.

Malik said the agencies are doing their job well and only the police of federal capital Islamabad have arrested 76 suspected suicide bombers.

He said the crisis management cell of the ministry collects and analyses the information on daily basis and pass on the data to relevant provinces or agencies for further action. So far, the cell has communicated 568 alerts to the agencies concerned averting a number of potential terrorist acts.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Friday visited interior ministry and chaired a meeting to review interior ministry performance and counter-terrorism measures.

Gilani has directed interior ministry to eliminate impression that there is lack of effective strategy against terrorism and urged to make intelligence more effective.

Gilani said law and order is responsibility of provincial governments. He directed the interior ministry to improve exchange of information and chalk out anti terror strategy.

Stronger relations with China was Kazakhstan’s foreign policy priority and would help protect regional peace and stability, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev said during an interview with Xinhua on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit here.

“China is a great neighbor of Kazakhstan,” he said. “To cement relations with China suits Kazakhstan’s interest, and is conducive to regional peace and stability.”

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, Kazakhstan and China had been deepening cooperation in all areas, including the economy, science and technology, security, and culture, Saudabayev said. In 2005, the two countries established a strategic partnership.

“Kazakhstan and China hold similar positions on major international and regional issues,” he said. “Both countries support non-interference in the internal affairs of independent countries, and favor settling international disputes through coordination. These create favorable conditions for sustainable bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation.”

Trade cooperation between the two countries had great potential, said Saudabayev. The trade volume had already reached the 15-billion-U.S.-dollar target leaders of the two countries had set for the year 2015.

Energy cooperation is an important part of bilateral trade, he said. The Kazakhstan-China natural gas pipeline program was a landmark cooperative program with mutual benefits, and was conducive to diverse energy development in Central Asia as well as the world.

China had also become the most popular place to study for Kazakh students, Saudabayev said. According to China’s statistics, currently there are more than 5,000 Kazakh college students studying in China.

During President Hu’s visit, the two countries’ leaders would review bilateral cooperation this year and plan for future cooperation, the Kazakh foreign minister said.

“One thing is for sure,” said Saudabayev. “President Hu Jintao’s visit will give new momentum to the Kazakhstan-China strategic partnership.”

Tax revenue for stock trading in China rose more than 10-fold in 2007 on the back of the bull run and a hike in stamp duties, state media reported Friday.

China collected 200.5 billion yuan (27.3 billion dollars) of securities stamp tax in 2007, the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing Shu Qiming, director of the statistics department at the State Administration of Taxation.

The figure was 10.2 times more than in 2006, Shu said.

The country’s booming stock market ended up 97 percent in 2007 after a gain of about 130 percent in 2006, making it one of the best-performing markets in the world.

Beijing tripled the stamp tax in late May in an effort to cool the red-hot market.

Millions of Chinese low-income families are embracing the most important festival of the year, the Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Thursday, with a frown as food prices continue to rise.

“The food price is rocketing. I spent the same amount of money as last year to prepare for the festival, but I bought fewer things.” said Liu Guiying, a 43-year-old cleaner in Hohhot, capital of northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Although the price of pork has gone up to 24 yuan per kilo, almost twice as much as last year, Liu Guiying, who relies on a monthly 230-yuan(32 U.S. dollars) subsidy from the government, added pork to her stock list.

Like Liu, China has 100 million people living on less than one U.S. dollars a day, most of whom are farmers and low-income residents in the city. They have a tight budget to make ends meet in the coming holidays.

With the pork price rising, China’s inflation barometer, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 4.8 percent in 2007 and hit an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November, well above the government target of three percent.

Li Huiyong, a senior macro-economic analyst at Shenyin and Wanguo Securities, predicted the CPI would possibly set a new high in February as the traditional time for shopping sprees among Chinese, the Spring Festival comes.

To ease the negative impacts of the price rises on the low-income families, Chinese finance and civil affairs ministry has improved the subsidy to the low-income residents in the city three times in 2007, with an average increase for 30 yuan per person.

“My subsidy will increase to 260 yuan this year and my salary will also increase 120 yuan a month. Life will be better.” said Liu, with a paralyzed husband and a schoolboy to feed.

To stabilize food prices, Chinese economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, has reassured that temporary price control measures have been implemented in all 31 provinces and municipalities on the Chinese mainland by Jan. 26. The policy limited price rises of daily food and necessities such as meat, eggs and liquefied petroleum gas.

The already tightened supply was further stretched by disrupted transportation, which was also hampered by continuous snow and sleet over much of China.

Liu Guiying has truly felt the pressure as vegetable prices escalated. She visits the market regularly and buys bargains.

The Chinese government has taken actions to cope with the price rises. A total of 18,000 tons of reserve meat is set to be put into market before Spring Festival to ensure pork supply, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Smooth shipment of vegetables and fruits between north and south will be guaranteed to cool down price rises resulting from the destroyed crops, Deputy Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou has said.

The National Development and Reform Commission asked local authorities to step up price monitoring and curb arbitrary price rises of such basic necessities as instant noodles, biscuit and pure water.

In spite of all the measures, prices will continue to rise for some time before the shortage in agricultural products, the main culprit for high inflation, is greatly eased, said Cao Changqing, director of the Pricing Department of the National Development and Reform Commission.

China’s CPI is estimated to hit four percent in 2008, according to a latest report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“My best wish in the new year is that the price would stop rising and life becomes better and better.” Liu’s wish may speaks for many low-income residents’ aspirations.

He was seen in SARS wards and AIDS-stricken villages. He visited four provinces in nine days during the past winter weather disaster, bowing to families of deceased heroes and apologizing to millions stranded at railway stations.

He spent Lunar New Year holidays with coal miners, dined with AIDS patients and stood behind migrant laborers demanding their wages in arrears.

While helping China to achieve double-digit GDP growth for five consecutive years, he has lived up to his motto, “The most important issue under the sun is to care for the well-being of the people.”

Wen Jiabao, the 65-year-old Chinese premier, has gained much popularity since he first took office in March 2003. He was approved by the parliament on Sunday to be premier of the State Council, the Chinese cabinet, for another five-year term.

His own poem, “Looking up at the Starry Sky,” probably can best describe his feelings at the start of his second term, “Eternal fervidity sets on blaze and gives off spring thunder in my heart.”

Throughout his first tenure as premier, Wen stood in the vanguard to confront every disaster, visiting dreadful hospitals during the SARS outbreak in 2003, and trekking slippery roads to oversee relief work when the worst snow and ice storm in 50 years battered central, southern and eastern China earlier this year.

He has visited most of the country’s 2,800-odd counties, wearing his homely jacket and sneakers and chatting with farmers, miners and migrant workers.

He once invited about a dozen grain farmers, rural teachers, coal miners, migrant workers and community doctors to Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound usually off-limits to commoners, to hear their comments on state affairs and government policies.

“He faces problems squarely,” a netizen wrote of the premier on the website of China Central Television.

Since becoming premier in March 2003, Wen has underscored the well-being of the people, particularly those in the underdeveloped western regions. He has led the government in a strenuous campaign to provide equal education, medical care and other social security coverage for the country’s 730 million farmers.

For five years, his government work reports to the annual parliamentary session were full of inspiring new policies aimed at improving the livelihood of the people, and led to the agricultural tax exemption and direct subsidies to grain farmers.

Wen, whose own parents were teachers, underscored time and again the importance of education, and facilitated the exemption of tuition and miscellaneous fees for primary and middle school students in the rural areas, as well as for students of six leading teachers’ universities across the country.

This year, he further promised nine years of free compulsory education in both urban and rural areas.

Trained as a geologist, Wen is cool-headed and steadfast, and confronts the nation’s woes with the persistence of an avid prospector, and the precision of a professor.

“It’s hard to be premier of the world’s most populous nation,” Wen said on several occasions. “A trivial issue becomes a big one when multiplied by 1.3 billion, and an astronomical figure becomes minute when divided by 1.3 billion.”

In celebration of Earth Day, which falls today, a Canadian in Beijing is spreading a movement to raise awareness of sustainable development through a distinctive hand sign.

Introduced in Hong Kong a year ago, the three-finger (”peace + one”) sign is reportedly becoming popular among students seeking to express their concern for the future in cool fashion.

“Changing attitudes toward society, environment and the economy is easy,” said Philip McMaster, academic and founder of the symbol.

“I’m not expecting it to happen quite that fast, but Earth Day would be an auspicious start for China,” said McMaster, who can often be seen zooming around the capital on in-line skates.

Any manager of Chelsea, as Avram Grant found out to his cost last month, needs to be a serial collector of silverware and have a big personality able to cope with one of the most unforgiving jobs in soccer.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, who will take over at the London club on July 1 once his stewardship of Portugal comes to an end at Euro 2008, can put a large tick in both boxes.

The Brazilian, who is approaching his 60th birthday, has an appetite for success to match Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, while his passion for the game often spills over into temper tantrums and run-ins with officials and opposing players.

The thought of Scolari head-to-head in the technical area with Manchester United’s tempestuous Alex Ferguson and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger next season is a dream scenario for the hyped-up Premier League.

Chelsea fans spent most of last season recovering from the sudden departure of their beloved Jose Mourinho, the man who returned glory to Stamford Bridge after 50 years of league mediocrity, winning two titles in his three seasons in charge.

For all his honest endeavors and impressive results, Grant, a rather dour Israeli, was never going to fill Mourinho’s boots and was sadly lacking in the “wow factor” demanded by both Abramovich and the fans.

When Grant was sacked despite taking the west London club to its first Champions League final and pushing United all the way to the final day of the Premier League season, Chelsea fans awaited the announcement of a real heavyweight coach.

Unsuccessful overtures for AC Milan’s Carlo Ancellotti and Inter’s Roberto Mancini appeared to underline the folly of allowing Mourinho to leave.

Demanding job

Scolari’s decision to accept arguably the most demanding job in club soccer should allow them to sleep easy.

Scolari will become the first Brazilian to manage a leading English club and whether he delivers or not, life at Stamford Bridge certainly should not be dull.

Two years after turning down the England job, citing his concerns over media harassment, Scolari has put himself firmly in the firing line.

His track record suggests that he could be the man to turn Chelsea from “nearly men” to the dominant force in English soccer once again after playing second fiddle to Manchester United for two seasons.

The Brazilian certainly will not shirk the challenge.

In 2001 he took over an ailing Brazil squad struggling to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals.

Brazilian fans worried about his reputation for rough tactics but a year later Brazil was crowned world champion against all the odds by beating Germany.

Scolari was sensible enough to leave his audience wanting more and left to become Portugal coach in 2003, steering it to the final of Euro 2004 where it lost to Greece.

Just like in 2002 when Brazil beat England, Scolari out-witted England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson on the way to the final, his touchline histrionics providing a stark contrast to Eriksson’s ice-cool persona.

Straight talking

The straight-talking former central defender’s volatile temperament and passion for the game has won him an army of fans, and plenty of critics along the way. But there is no doubting his tactical acumen and ability to instill team spirit.

His coaching career began in 1982 and it was not long before he steered two of Brazil’s biggest clubs, Gremio and Palmeiras, to success in the Libertadores Cup, the South American version of Europe’s Champions League.

Scolari’s sides were often physical and gained an unwelcome reputation for gamesmanship. His bust-ups with Brazilian football reporters were notorious.

Even when he began to mellow as an international coach Scolari could still grab the headlines. In 2007 he clashed with a Serbian player after a bad tempered Euro 2008 qualifier, letting fly with a punch.

For all the flare-ups and comedy moments, Chelsea has hired one of the best coaches money can get. He will relish the cut and thrust of England’s abrasive top flight and if anybody can take Chelsea nearer to their dream of world domination it is Big Phil.

Collin, a diner at Barbeque Ji Restaurant in Houhai with his American friend Laurie is reacquainting himself with this “renowned Muslim restaurant”, which has hosted figures such as former U.S. President George Bushand is adjacent to the former residence of Soong Ching-ling.

They are enjoying a plate of stir-fired snow pea and the roast lamb kept hot on a candle stove, a must at the eatery founded by chef Ji Decai during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that has catered to diners for 160 years.

The century-old recipe includes several critical steps: select choice lamb and beef, pickle and barbecue them on the specially made grill with onion, coriander and other spices. The dish was a favorite with the nobility living in the lake area when the restaurant opened.

The best way to eat the meat is to make a Chinese “beef/lamb burger” by stuffing the meat into a pre-sliced baked wheaten cake.

Chinese beans, vegetable hors d’oeuvres, quick fried white turnip, spiced beef and laurel-lotus roots are most popular starters.

Beijing roast duck here is less greasy compared with some other roast duck eateries in the city as Barbeque Ji has its own finely selected duck breed.

Other popular main dishes include curry beef, savory beef, roast lamb back, braised ox tail, grilled beef cutlets, diced chicken with chili pepper, chicken with cashew nut, deep-fried prawns, stir-fried asparagus and sauted celery and lily.

The small dish is enough for two and the large for more than three.

Sipping 5-year-old Chinese rice wine beneath pictures from ancient Chinese mythology at the lakeside restaurant is a very oriental experience.

You can ask the waiter to spice up your rice wine with salted plums and take away the porcelain wine bottle as a souvenir.

The chef’s own plum juice can cool you off on a sweltering summer day.

The three-storey traditional building is set against the Yinding Bridge (Silver Ingot Bridge), at the southeast end of the lake, about 15 minutes walk from the southern gate of the lake.

The servings at the always-packed restaurant have diminished over the years and the service during peak hours is a bit slow.

So be patient. You can spend the wait by the Yinding Bridge with a view of the mountains in the west of Beijing if it is a clear day. This is rated as one of the eight best views of the ancient city.

Phone number: 8610 6404-2554.

Opening time: 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

English menu available and major credit cards accepted.

You would spend around 60 yuan (8.8 U.S. dollars) to 80 yuan for a meal per person on average here.

Besides the tasty food at Barbeque Ji for lunch, Collin has much more to share with his friend. For instance, he can show her along the meandering Yandaixie Street (Tobacco Pipe Lane) just at the back of Barbeque Ji, a 300-meter-plus, time-honored twisting road scattered along with many souvenir shops.

When you cross Yinding Bridge and walk for about five minutes to the south, you will run into a hotpot eating house along the bar street, ideally set in an old siheyuan (four-sided enclosed yards), with a perfect view of the street and lake.

Hongyuan Nan Men Hotpot

If you are a hotpot lover, you have loads of choices in Beijing. If you are a bar-flyer, you also have many options in Houhai. But having a hotpot meal at a siheyuan in Houhai, Nan Men Hotpot would be the premium destination.

Nan Men (South Gate) got its name when the first of its eight branches opened a decade ago next to the south gate of the Temple of Heaven in southern Beijing.

Although hotpot meals have gone through many changes, the traditional Beijing-style large copper pot with pure-water broth that you can have in Nan Men remains many people’s unchanged favorite.

However, you can order one separate small pot for each around the table, a finely eclectic practice between the Chinese and Western dining styles.

The prices here are fair, for you would spend around 50 yuan per person to buy a decent meal with a group of friends.

You will find most diners boiling and supping on a plate of fresh and exquisite lamb or beef from Inner Mongolia, Chinese cabbage, spinach, sliced yam, sliced potato or other veggies, and quaffing a local Yanjing beer.

Two specialties of the hotpot chain are its chef-made sesame sauce with chopped onion, peanut and coriander and its mouth-watering sesame wheaten cake (either a baked one or a deep-fried one).

If you want to enjoy supper under the sky, you have to be early to get one of the six tables outside in the courtyard, although the surrounding street environment is actually too bustling for a quiet meal.

Phone number: 8610 6616-7033 (Chinese speaking service only).

Opening time: 11 a.m. to midnight.

Major credit cards accepted.

After a hearty hotpot meal, if you take a stroll along the narrow hutong at the gate of Nan Men Hotpot to the south for several minutes, you will find an eatery in the real depth of the hutong. Moreover, the food here is likely something you are familiar with.

Hutong Pizza

You will find this five-year-old restaurant in a two-storied structure with a shabby outlook in the real depth of the hutong. Accordingly, its name is “Hutong Pizza.”

When asked about the structure’s history, even the manager of the eatery could not tell for sure whether the building was a former residence of an influential official in the Qing Dynasty or a Buddhist convent of nuns. However, the painted rafters and the creaking sound from the wooden stairs of the building tell how many passersby it has witnessed.

From the wooden bridge, bamboo, fish pond and rockery, you can get a glimpse of what Chinese fengshui means. For food there are 11 vegetarian and seafood pizzas and 13 meaty pizzas for choices. The handwritten menu blackboard is in English and tells of what’s on offer.

Mediterranean, veggie mania, carnivore carnival and roast chicken and bacon pizzas are recommended.

On the first page of the menu, there is a lovely reminder that”a small pizza (30 cm 30 cm) is suitable for one (very hungry) person or two (hungry) people. A large pizza (30 cm 50 cm) is suitable for two (very hungry) people to four (hungry) people.”

Snacks like crispy jacket potato skins with garlic dip are warmly welcomed among foreign hutong explorers.

If you want to enjoy more tastes during your Houhai gastronomic odyssey, you can order combined pizzas here, either a combination of two different toppings to make one small pizza, or three different toppings together to make one large pizza.

Sipping a beer or a soup in the ambiance of the rattan-plaited bookshelf, big wooden chairs and Tibetan pictures on the wall, you will feel at home, although you may also find the light on the second floor too dim.

It is not the first time for Beijing to welcome big guns of the tennis world, but spectators still seem to be unfamiliar with the sport which acquires people to stay quiet during a match.

If a rally gets long, the crowd may start cheering before it’s over and sometimes they get excited when a first serve ball goes into the net, not to speak those who talk aloud to the phone.

Some enthusiastic audience in the ongoing Olympic tennis competition apparently become a headache for the elite players. However, some others tend to love it.

“The crowd is quite enthusiastic, they love tennis. Sometimes they get quite excited. It is quite distracting for us, you know, for me and for my opponent,” said Serbian Jelena Jankovic after making it to the women’s singles quarterfinals on Wednesday.

“But it’s very difficult to explain to them in Chinese or I don’t know how to do it.

“During the point, we are really fighting hard, you know, to play each ball, and you hear such a loud applause. You have to try to stay as focused as possible during those times,” she said.

The noise is pretty normal in soccer, basketball, volleyball and even table tennis, a sport quite like tennis. But for a sport originating from the French church and being developed in the British royal court, gentle manners seem to be understandable and acceptable.

The problem is that the so-called royal sport is totally an import for the Olympic host country although an estimated millions of people have been taking on the sport in China.

“It doesn’t make sense if you could not make a sound during a tennis match. I understand it is a tradition, but why should these tennis players be so spoiled and even not take pressure from the crowd?” a tennis fan born in the 1980s told Xinhua at the Olympic Green Tennis Center on Thursday. “Probably it is time for some innovation.”

The noise becomes noticeably louder when the match involves a Chinese player. The applause is meant to be encouragement, but it’s already become a monkey on the Chinese players’ back.

“The matches are really tough, and I have gained great support from my fans. However, maybe some fans are not familiar with the requirements of tennis games,” said Zheng Jie, the Wimbledon semifinalist, after her second round match against Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives on Tuesday.

“Sometimes they may cheer too early, which will bother the players. I hope that next time maybe they can pay attention to that.”

However, in the third round match against Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina and Zheng’s doubles match on Wednesday, the crowd still did the same.

The sport became popular since the Athens 2004 when China’s Li Ting/Sun Tiantian claimed the women’s doubles gold medal and China has started to host some professional events like China Open in Beijing and Masters Cup in Shanghai.

“I saw the Fed Cup competitions and some other matches in China this year, people walked around and talked a lot during the match. People didn’t know much about tennis, so we need to work on it,” said the ITF technical delegate Eiichi Kawatei during the Olympic tennis draw ceremony.

But some players seem not to be upset by the lively people.

“I noticed that in the long rallies, they were living and dying with each point. I thought it was kind of funny,” said American fourth seed Serena Williams.

“Actually, I was playing team tennis this year, and the crowds were so loud. I didn’t even know it would be a good warmup for this, but it was a great warmup for this. Now it actually makes me get excited they’re so into the point. It’s actually kind of cool. I like it.”

Swiss world number one Roger Federer did not usually play in Asia where local players are playing at a low level, but he also understands the situation.

“At times they’re reserved and then at times they really get excited. I think they feel like this is a big stage, with the lights and everything,” he said.

Australian former world number one Lleyton Hewitt holds the same idea.

“It was a good crowd. Made a fair bit of noise. They were very knowledgeable about tennis, I think. You know, it was a very fair crowd. I think they just wanted to see good tennis out there,” said Hewitt.

But if Serbian Jankovic wants to progress in the tennis event, she has to learn how to cope with the noise, especially playing against a Chinese player in the Centre court.

“I think it’s much better to have some kind of atmosphere. It’s better than have quiet fans that don’t even applaud,” Jankovic said. Enditem