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Sydney double champion Wang Nan out of table tennis singles
(people.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-08-20 14:25
Chinese Sydney Olympic double champion Wang Nan lost to Singapore's Li Jia
Wei 4-1 Thursday evening and failed to make the women's singles semifinals in
the table tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Wang lost the match 7-11, 7-11, 13-11, 9-11 and 8-11.
This was another severe blow to the ambitious Chinese, who had hoped to
repeat their feat in Sydney with another clean sweep of the four table tennis
golds on offer.
Wang, ranked world No.2 in singles, was totally overwhelmed by the 8th-ranked
Singaporean throughout the match. Wang displayed some fighting spirit in the
third and fourth games, when she caught up from 0-7 and 1-7 down to 10-10 and
9-9 draw, but let Li take the other three games without much difficulty.
"Li played very well tonight," said Cai Zhenhua, head coach of the Chinese
table tennis team after the match. "Wang had some difficulty in judging the
spins of Li's services and therefore became quite vulnerable for most of the
time."
For the 23-year-old Singaporean, the victory was a sweet revenge for her loss
to Wang in Sydney 2000, when she had taken a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five-set
match and was 20-16 ahead in the fourth set, but only to let Wang stage a
miraculous comeback and win 3-2.
Wang, who was crowned singles champion at the Sydney Games, also beat Li
twice again in their encounters in the past years, including one in the 2002
Busan Asian Games, when Wang was in the worst form of her career.
"Despite all the previous losses, I always believe that I have the capability
to beat her (Wang), because I play faster than she does," said Li after her
Friday victory. "And I have enhanced the variation of services in today's
match."
She said that when Wang made a successful comeback again in the third game,
she had reminded herself: "You must not let what happened in Sydney happen
again!"
Li's coach said that Wang seemed to have been playing under great pressure
and was "a bit too soft and conservative" in the match.
"Meanwhile, I have told my player to play as boldly and aggressively as
possible, because we had nothing to lose and it would be quite normal if we lost
the match," he added.
Li said that generally speaking, Wang is still stronger than her both in
skills and tactics. "But this is the Olympic Games, where skills and tactics are
not everything," her coach said.
Li, a handshake fast attacker who used to play for the Beijing Table Tennis
Team in China, won her first pro tour singles champion in the U.S. Open in early
July. "Winning that title has greatly boosted my self-confidence," she noted.
In China, Li was known as a member of the so-called "overseas legion", a term
referring to former Chinese players now playing for other countries and regions
where they have obtained citizenship or right of abode.
When the "overseas legion" first emerged, the Chinese table tennis officials
had blamed them for defeating Chinese players in some crucial matches in major
tournaments. But in recent years, they had adopted a much more open attitude and
even called it a good thing for the popularization of the sport worldwide.
After her loss, Wang left the court immediately and didn't pick up any
questions from reporters waiting in the mixed zone.
The disqualification from the singles has prevent Wang from emulating her
predecessor Deng Yaping, who had reigned in the women's table tennis and bagged
four Olympic golds in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996.
Some Chinese media reported that this Olympic tournament would be Wang's swan
song as she planned to retire afterwards, though Wang didn't confirm it herself.
But Wang still had a chance to win her third Olympic gold as she and teammate
Zhang Yining Thursday entered the women's doubles final. They will play South
Korean pair Lee Eun Sil/Seok Eun Mi Friday afternoon for the first table tennis
gold in Athens.
Zhang, world No.1 singles, also beat Croatia's Tamara Boros 4-0 Thursday
evening to secure one place for China in the Olympic singles last four. She will
take on South Korean chopper Kim Kyung Ah in the semifinals.
Results of women's singles Olympic table tennis quarterfinals
Women's singles' quarterfinals:
Zhang Yining, China, bt Tamara
Boros, Croatia, 4-0
Kim Kyung Ah, South Korea, bt Tie Yana, Hong Kong,
China, 4-1
Kim Hyang Mi, DPR Korea, bt Zhang Xueling, Singapore, 4-2
Li
Jia Wei, Singapore, bt Wang Nan, China, 4-1
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