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China Loses Two Women Seeds
China suffered two major blows Wednesday after two of their top six ranked players crashed out of the women's singles event at the World Table Tennis Championships.
First to go was fifth seed Yang Ying who fell a victim to 18th seeded Liu Jia of Austria in four games. Then a teenager from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ousted Chinese world number two Li Ju.
Kim Yun Mi, who turned 19 on Saturday, beat Li Ju 18-21, 21-18, 23-21, 21-17 in the women's singles third round.
Kim, ranked 59th in the world, said afterwards that her opponent "seemed to be nervous" in the decisive fourth game.
"I am very happy. She played very hard in the first game but I told myself that I should and can beat her," she said.
In the other surprise Chinese exit, Yang Ying lost for the first time to Liu Jia in five meetings.
"She seemed a little nervous to me. I had no problems, today I was playing at 100 percent," said Liu.
She added that this was the first time she had played so aggressive against a Chinese player.
"The last four times I played against her and lost. This time I was in better shape and was able to take the game to her. In previous meeting I always feared her because she was better ranked, this time I was more confident," Liu said.
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