China’s Li Xiaoxia captured the Volkswagen Women’s World Cup title
in the Malaysia’s capital city of Kula Lumpur on the evening of Monday
8th September 2008.
She beat Hong Kong’s Tie Yana in straight games at the final hurdle, securing victory by the margin of 11-4, 11-3, 11-3, 14-12.
It
was only Li Xiaoxia’s second career appearance in the annual event, her
only previous participation being in 2006 in Urumqi, in northern China.
Dominant
In Kuala Lumpur, Li Xiaoxia, seeded two, dominated from start to finish; never was she in real doubt.
"I’m
very happy to win my first World Cup title", sais Li Xiaoxia. "I’m
trying to adjust to using the new glue one match at a time, I try to
analyse each match, so I think that’s one reason why I won."
Best Finish
Meanwhile for Tie Yana it was her seventh consecutive appearance in the prodigious event and her best finish to date.
In
2002 in Singapore and in 2004 in Hagzhou she finished in a highly
creditable third place, whilst on the last three occasions - Guangzhou
2005, Urumqi 2006, Chengdu 2007 - she has finished in fourth spot; her
lowest eventual position was a quarter-finalist on home soil in Hong
Kong in 2003.
Fifth Meeting
It
was the fifth time in a world ranking event that Li Xiaoxia and Tie
Yana had met; it was the fourth time that Li Xiaoxia had won; the one
victory for Tie Yana being in November 2005 at the quarter-final stage
of the Women’s Singles event at the Swedish Open.
On that occasion Tie Yana won in seven games.
All Meetings in the Same Year
The other previous three meetings were also in 2005; two on the ITTF Pro Tour.
In
September, Li Xiaoxia won in four straight games in the third round of
the Women’s Singles event at the Panasonic China Open, whilst the
following week she succeeded at the same stage in six games at the
Volkswagen Open China.
The one other meeting came in December
2005 in the first stage of proceedings at the Asian Cup when Li Xiaoxia
succeeded in straight games.
Emphatic
In
Kuala Lumpur in the final of the 2008 Volkswagen Women’s World Cup she
repeated the success and once again won in most emphatic style.
Once again, as always the title winner was Chinese but a new name, Li
Xiaoxia.
Source: www.ittf.com
