Zhang ignores injury to retain
SINGAPORE: China’s Zhang Yining retained the women’s table tennis World Cup here Sunday, shrugging off a thigh injury as she demolished fellow Chinese Li Nan in straight games. Zhang, the world number two seed but tournament favourite following the withdrawal of number one Wang Nan, was in no mood to stay at the table longer than necessary. Despite not being able to move as freely as she would like, Zhang looked invulnerable against the left-handed Li, who is ranked eighth in the world, and raced to an 11-9, 11-8, 11-3, 11-9 victory.
But her dominant play did not completely satisfy Chinese national coach Ni Xia Dong, who said Zhang has room for improvement. “She has to improve physically, she simply has to get stronger, and then we can improve her services,” said Ni, and Zhang agreed. “It is true. Earlier, I simply did not like to work with the weights, but now I have realized that I have to, if I want to improve,” Zhang said.
In the semi-finals, Zhang was equally dominant even when the injury hit her right thigh as she steam-rollered her way over Hong Kong’s Lin Ning 11-5, 11-7, 11-4, 11-3. In the other China-Hong Kong semi-final, the golden run of Tie Yana came to an end.
She started strongly taking the first game 12-10, before Li gained the upper hand and rattled off the next four 11-7, 11-5, 11-2, 12-10. Tie, the world’s 23rd ranked player, was brought into the invitation-only tournament the day before it started when African Champion Funke Oshonaike of Nigeria withdrew. She ended the tournament on a high beating Lin 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 11-7, 2-11, 11-9 in the play-off for third