Broadcasting Time: 2007-01-19

Li Na not in action today at the Australian Open but Sun Shengnan Sun and Sun Tiantian are. They are facing a couple of Ruskies in Elena Bovina and Alla Kud-ry-av-tseva.

Last we checked it was 2-1 in favor of the Russians.

Also in action today,

Yan Zi and Zheng Jie taking on Vasilisa Bardina of (RUS) and Alicja Roso-lska (POL). That's set to go later to today.

Then after that, Yan Zi and Todd Perry of (AUS) get together in mixed doubles they will play Frantisek Cermak (CZE) and Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

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And Ding Jun Huai continues his movement through the the wembley world snooker championships.

He Beat Peter Ebdon yesterday to move into the final eight, today Steven Lee is who he faces.

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Chinese NBA player The big, the mighty, the man who's alrighty Yao Ming and world 110-meter hurdles record-holder Sweet Liu Xiang are the two sports stars among the 22 Chinese chosen for this year's list of 250 Global Young Leaders by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

Some of the other Chinese in the list, just so ya know, include Ding Lei, CEO of portal website NetEase, Bai Yansong, a well known news anchor and commentator from China Central Television, and Golden Lion-winning director Jia Zhangke.

A 34-member selection committee selected young leaders from various fields based on their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

The Young Global Leaders 2007 includes business leaders, as well as leaders from governments, academia, media and society at large from nearly 70 countries.

And Yao and Sweet Liu are a part of the world's finest.

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Rising star Yi Jianlian has broken NBA centre Yao Ming's record for the most slam dunks by a Chinese player in the China Basketball Association.

Yi, 19, who plays for the league champion Guangdong Tigers, surpassed Yao's CBA record of 302 dunks by a Chinese player.

Yi overtook Yao's dunk milestone recently but we were counting and then counting again just to make sure it in fact did happen.

And it has, following Guangdong's 102-91 victory over Shandong on Wednesday, the 2.12-metre (seven-foot) Yi has 314 dunks.

Yi, who is averaging 24.3 points and 12.1 rebounds per game this season, is expected to be a top pick in the National Basketball Association's June draft, following his famous countryman into the world's toughest league.

Although Yi is now the CBA's leading Chinese dunker, the league's most prolific dunker remains US player Jason Dixon, Yi's Guangdong teammate and seven-year CBA veteran who has 386 dunks.

The CBA keeps official statistics on slam dunks, but the numbers were not posted on its website as off Thursday.