ASIA 'HAPPY HUNTING GROUND' FOR CARLSEN
Kenneth Carlsen's victory at last year's Salem Open was not only a personal triumph but one shared by his whole country.
After beating Zimbabwe's Byron Black in the final, Carlsen became the first Dane to win an ATP Tour title in the Open era.
The 25-year-old has since struggled, but the defending champion knows that his best performances last year came in Asia and that he is close to regaining his best form.
After winning in Hong Kong, he failed to string two victories together until he returned to Asia to compete in Shanghai, where he reached the quarter-finals. He also reached the last eight in Singapore.
He has had a slow start this year but showed that he is capable of competing against the best when he beat 14th-ranked Goran Ivanisevic in the third round of the recent Lipton Champion ships in Key Biscayne, Florida. Carlsen, who has slipped below 100 in the rankings, knows that victory in Hong Kong is crucial to his world ranking.
With Hong Kong boasting its strongest field so far at this year's event, he realises that he faces an awesome task.
Carlsen is one of two Scandinavians competing in the Victoria Park event, the other being 1995 runner-up Jonas Bjorkman, of Sweden.
Bjorkman, the world number 34, has also had a difficult start to the year.
His best performance has been at Key Biscayne, where he reached the third round before being knocked out by Pete Sampras.
In the previous round, he defeated Andrei Medvedev after earning a first-round bye.
Before that, he had won just one match: against Boris Becker in the first round of February's Dubai Open.
