Gosh, it seems a long while since we last had a sports update on TheBeijinger.com. Heck, it seems nearly as long ago as when Li Na won the French Open. We all know that she’s not hit those heights since. We can now add the first round of the China Open to the list of recent failures. Luckily for Li, the head of the WTA thinks she’ll be fine.

For those that want to know who did win the China Open, it was Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the women’s singles and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the men’s singles. Shanghai tennis fans have been enjoying the likes of Rafael Nadal at the Shanghai Masters. This doesn’t really seem fair to us. Nadal’s crashed out now so I guess it serves those southerners right.

More real-life sports stars were at China’s Laureus Awards, which honor the nation's best athletes. Most Popular Sportsman of the Year went to Liu Xiang while Lin Dan and Li Na were awarded Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year, respectively. Not a single one of them showed up to collect their awards. Retiree Yao Ming took home the Most Prominent Achievement of the Year award, but the real winner was swimmer Sun Yang, who took both the New Sportsman of the Year and Breakthrough of the Year.

Lin Dan’s recent non-appearances are not a tactical way to ensure that one of his teammates gets a high-enough ranking to be certain of London 2012. Honest. So says Super Dan’s coach, in this China Daily article.

Team China’s men took the team gold at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo. Photos here. This was China’s fifth consecutive men’s team event crown.

Less success for Team China, football edition. China’s World Cup hopes have suffered another embarrassing setback. The team lost 1-0 at home to Iraq in a crucial match. The loss leaves in tatters the possibility of qualifying for the next round on the road to Brazil 2014 . Chinese football never fails to disappoint.

No doubt that view is shared by Lu Jun. The GM of the CSL has resigned after six months in charge. Perhaps they will offer the position to general applicants again and "Talking Balls" reader Sossi's boyfriend will have better luck than last time.

Asia's highest-level polo event, the Royal Salute Gold Cup 2011 China Open Polo Tournament, is taking place at Tang Polo Club in Tongzhou. The recent proliferation of clubs means polo fans are becoming spoilt for choice. Perhaps their butlers will help them decide which is the best.

Yi Jianlian is coming back to his roots. The NBA pay lockout has done for his American dreams and he’s signed up with Guangdong Southern Tigers. Also crossing the Pacific to join the CBA are Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler. Earl Smith has already been and gone; some sources suggest that he wasn’t feeling the food in Zhejiang.

Did we forget to mention last month that Stephon Marbury is now a Beijinger? It's true – he's signed a year-long contract with the Beijing Ducks. More exciting still is the news that he lives in Wangfujing, likes attending Beijing Guoan games and plans to take the subway to work – all of which were reasons he picked our fair city.

Team China’s boxers punched their way to qualification for London 2012 at the AIBA World Boxing Championships. Knockout news, indeed.

Fifty-two nuns will run the Beijing Marathon on Sunday as part of the Sisters’ Run 2011. Good luck to the Chinese sisters in their fundraising quest. Good luck to them and everyone else daft enough to run anywhere between 10 and 42 kilometres. We'll be interviewing them before the race. Stay tuned.

The Tour of Beijing has been and gone. It marked China’s arrival on the pro cycling tour. Most of the cycling teams restricted themselves to a pollo-pescatarian diet for the duration of the competition. They were instructed to avoid pork and beef for fear of accidentally ingesting clenbuterol and the ensuing testing-positive-for-banned-substances scandal.

Liang Wenchong was leading the Shui On Land China Golf Challenge at Beijing’s Topwin Golf and Country Club. That’s impressive golfing – the field includes Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter. Will China’s number one hold out?

And finally, the first-ever SportAccord World Mind Games will take place from December 8-16 2011 in Beijing. Bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi will be on the menu. We have a sense of déjà vu about this. (Hopefully that’s one of the mind games on offer.) Here are some other mind games we'd like see as competitive sports: passive-aggressive oneupsmanship, gaslighting, extreme second-guessing, emotional triangulation and insinuendoes. Our money is on every single male competitor losing.

Photo: Sina