Chinese Paddlers Wake up from Asiad Nightmare to Bag Singles Golds

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 10, 2002

Chinese Paddlers Wake up from Asiad Nightmare to Bag Singles Golds

The Chinese table tennis team woke up from the nightmare of a string of defeats, bagging both golds for men's and women's singles in the 14th Asian Games competition Wednesday.

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The Chinese table tennis team woke up from the nightmare of a string of defeats, bagging both golds for men's and women's singles in the 14th Asian Games competition Wednesday.

Facing a tough challenge from Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih Yuan,world No.10 who had ousted South Korea's defending champion Kim Taek-soo and Chinese veteran star Kong Linghui in a row, reigning world champion Wang Liqin overcame a difficult situation and clinched the title with a convincing victory of 4-0.

Wang, having lost many important matches in the past due to a fragile mentality, trailed 0-7, 4-8 and 2-5 in the last three games of the final, but came back to win all the three by 12-10, 13-11 and 11-7.

"The match was very difficult," said Wang at a press briefing after the match. "I think I have achieved some progresses in both self-control and experience at this Asiad."

"I have been fully prepared for any difficulties during the match, and this helped me to keep calm when I was trailing behind," the world No.1 added.

With two golds to his name, Wang had become the most crowned player in the Chinese team, which had suffered its worst defeat since its Asian Games debut in the 1970s by taking only three of the total seven table tennis titles.

The all-star Chinese women's squad suffered a shock 1-3 defeat to the DPR Koreans to concede a team title they had been holding for 12 years. The Chinese players also lost all three titles in the doubles events.

However, the Chinese women paddlers took a rather quick recovery from the heavy blow they had received in the past few days and on Wednesday afternoon turned the women's singles final into an all-Chinese affair to prove their real strength.

World No.1 Wang Nan and No.2 Zhang Yining both crushed their semifinal opponents from Singapore and South Korea 4-0 to set up their third meeting in the singles final of a major games in recent years.

The two had encountered twice in the 1999 Eindhoven world championships and also in China's 9th National Games last year, and both matches had developed exactly the same way, with Zhang taking an early lead of 2-0 but Wang coming back for a 3-2 win.

Wednesday's final, played shortly before the men's, also witnessed Wang coming back from two games down to a 2-2 and 3-3 tie, but this time Zhang didn't give Wang the chance to repeat her magic reversals and finished the decider 11-9.

The defeat in the singles final had thrown Wang's professional career into the darkest days. Wang was the most crowned athlete in the previous Asian Games in Bangkok with four golds from team, singles, doubles and mixed doubles events, but had to go home empty-handed this time.

However, Wang said after the match that winning a gold was not the most important thing for her at this Asiad.

"After giving such a poor performance in the team, doubles and mixed doubles competition, it was more important for me to overcome myself in the following matches and I did it," she said.

Wang had conceded two points in the women's team final and also was shut out of the finals of doubles and mixed doubles.

"My pre-games preparations were insufficient and my study of possible opponents was also not enough, this was the main reason for my defeats at this Asiad," said Wang, adding that she also failed to concentrate herself on the first few matches.

"Maybe I have had too many smooth victories in international competitions in recent years," said the dual Olympic and world champion.

Until Monday afternoon, Wang's on-court performance was nothing but disappointing as she frequently conceded points to the opponents through weak and aimless attacks, poor defense and unforced errors.

However, she started to get back to her usual form from the first round of the singles competition on Tuesday, and scored straight victories against both host player Kim Moo-kyo and DPR Korea's Kim Hyon-hui, who had beaten Wang 3-1 in the team final.

In Wednesday's semifinals, a confident and aggressive Wang knocked out Singapore's world No.10 Li Jia Wei quickly by 4-0, something quite unexpected by the Chinese coaches.

"Wang had never outclassed Li so easily," commented Chinese team leader Liu Fengyan. Li, after giving Wang a big scare in the Sydney Olympics, even beat Wang once in last year's World Cup competition.

Wang thanked her coaches and teammates for supporting and encouraging her at the most difficult time, which she said was thekey reason for her fast regaining of a good shape in the singles matches. "Otherwise it could have taken half a year, one year and even longer for me to do so," she added.

Chinese head coach Cai Zhenhua had personally served as Wang's match overseer and advisor throughout the two-day singles competition.

"A very loud alarm has been sounded to me at this Asiad. All the defeats have taught me a lesson: never think you will always be the sole best player in the world," said Wang. "But I think they (the defeats) will help me in the future competitions."

For the 20-year-old young star Zhang Yining, who and her partner Li Nan on Tuesday let the doubles gold slip out of their hands as they turned weak with a 3-1 lead and lost to a tenacious South Korean pair 3-4, Wednesday's hard victory was also a precious asset for her future development.

"I have also overcome myself by walking out of the shadow of past defeats to Wang," said Zhang. "I feel I have achieved a leap in my self-control ability."

"Still there is a lot for me to learn from Wang, especially her rich experience and calmness on court," the modest Zhang added.

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