Olympic singles and doubles champion Zhang Yining failed to
reverse her fortunes when she lost to a former teammate for the
fourth time over the weekend.
Jiang Huajun, playing for the Hong Kong team, beat Zhang 9-11,
11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-5 in the women's third round of the
Japan Open table tennis tournament in Chiba.
It was Jiang's fourth win over her more heralded rival since the
2005 Qatar Open, 2006 Kuwait Open and 2007 Croatia Open.
Zhang has been battling poor form and nagging injuries this
year, which also saw her surprising straight-sets loss to eventual
champion Guo Yue of China in the Zagreb world championships in
May.
"Zhang Yining isn't in form," said national team coach Li Sun.
"She has to work harder if she wants to defend her crowns at the
2008 Beijing Olympics."?
Li said threats to the Chinese women's team in the 2008 Olympics
could come from outside the Chinese mainland.
"Hong Kong's women players are quite strong," said Li, who used
to coach Jiang in the Chinese team before she moved to Hong
Kong.
Beijing has churned out more table tennis expatriates than any
other Chinese city. Zhu Fang (Spain), Li Jia Wei (Singapore), Yang
Zi (Singapore), Zhang Xueling (Singapore), Wu Xue (Dominican
Republic), Li Qiangbing (Austria) and Wang Chen (United States) are
all from the capital.
The women's tournament at the 2007 European championships was
dominated by former Chinese. Liu Jia failed to defend her singles
honor while 34-year-old Li Jiao of the Netherlands downed
44-year-old Ni Xialian of Luxembourg in the final.
The Chinese team, which has lost only one world individual title
in the new millennium, sees Singapore as another major threat.
All of the six-member Singapore team come from China. Its women'
s players Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Beibei are ranked 7th, 8th
and 17th in the world.
The top ranked Singaporean men are Gao Ning and Yang Zi.
Singapore is coached by another expat Chinese Liu Guodong, whose
brother Liu Guoliang heads the Chinese men's team.
Li Sun's little sister Li Jun now plays for Japan and another
Chinese national team coach Li Xiaodong is the father of Li
Qiangbing, who plays for Austria.
Qi Baohua, the elder sister of Qi Baoxiang, who coaches the
Chinese second-string women's team, used to play for Hong Kong in
the 1990s.
A dozen of Chinese coaches are advising foreign teams. Better
known among them are New Zealand chief Li Chunli, England head
coach Liu Jiayi, Wang Dayong, the mentor of Belgium's former world
No. 1 Jean-Michel Saive, and Liu Yanjun, who guided Liu Jia to the
European singles championship in 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2007)