I am in Hong Kong to edit stories. Correct errors, make sure “style” is being followed, write headlines and captions. Occasionally, I comb the wires for stories and do some layout — on those occasions when I have been scheduled to put out the sports pages.

So, I didn’t come to write, and in Hong Kong, frankly, there isn’t all that much opportunity. Not in sports. This isn’t exactly New York or Los Angeles or London when it comes to sports the rest of the world might be interested in.

But a quirky tennis event came to town last week, and I pitched it as a story, and got approval, and spent nearly all day Saturday over at the tennis stadium at Victoria Park, watching and interviewing.

It was the continental-themed event I referred to in an earlier post. Where they gave me a great seat at midcourt.

Anyway, I decided to pursue three angles in one story, and here it is at NYT.com

It appeared in the Monday editions of the paper. At least in the Asia-oriented editions.

If you don’t follow the link, I will sum it up.

–Zheng Jie is turning China into a tennis country. She is ranked No. 25 in the world and last year got to the semifinals of Wimbledon before losing to Serena Williams. She is extraordinarily popular in China, and when you come from a country of 1.3 billion people … that’s extraordinary popularity, indeed.

–Venus Williams looked great for the four days she was here. Just killing the ball and trashing three good opponents. Venus never has won the Australian Open, which starts next Monday.

–Hong Kong is a big (6.8 million people) city with almost no big sports. This non-sanctioned tournament is one of the big two events that happen here, the other being the world rugby sevens tournament they have in March.

They do a Europe/Asia tour golf tournament in November or December, but total attendance this year was 36,000, which is nothing special.

Anyway, Hong Kong is such a busy, bustling place, you would think it would have an interest in being a sports destination. But it doesn’t. It lacks venues, local sports of any significance (the soccer league here is roundly ignored) and doesn’t seem keen to go out and attract any, not in the way Singapore and Shanghai — Hong Kong’s rivals — have.

And I wrote about that, as well.