Zhang Yining retained her Women¢s Singles title at the Qatar Open in
Doha on Saturday 21st February 2009 beating Chinese national team
compatriot Guo Yue in four straight games.
In a contest between
the reigning Olympic champion and the reigning World champion it was
the former who prevailed and she prevailed in style. She won 11-6,
11-2, 11-6, 11-9.
It was a performance that underlined her status of being the world¢s no.1 ranked female table tennis player.
Previous Results
It
was Zhang Yining who made the better start; she won the first five
points of the first game before Guo Yue responded; the backhand was as
sure as ever, the forehand as devastating.
However, having
played error free, she then made errors as Guo Yue changed the degrees
of topspin to great effect; heavy spin followed by speed.
Guo Yue reduced the arrears to 5-4 but never gained parity. Zhang Yining won the first game 11-6.
Same Again
Again
in the second game, it was Zhang Yining who made the better start, she
won the first nine points; eventually winning the game 11-2.
However,
in the third game, Guo Yue responded; the two were level at 5-all, the
stage at which Zhang Yining once again asserted her superiority.
She won the next four points to lead 9-5, surrendering just one more point to succeed 11-6.
Response
Trailing by three games to nil, Guo Yue responded in the fourth.
Attacking
quickly, predominantly wide to the Zhang Yining forehand, she went
ahead 4-2 and playing positively extended the lead to 9-5. Zhang Yining
won the next four points compelling Guo Yue to call “Time Out”.
The
break worked but not for Guo Yue, the next three points all went the
way of Zhang Yining; once again she was the champion in Qatar.
Previous Results
Previous
result had gone very much in favour of Zhang Yining; she had won eight
of their previous 12 duels but the more pertinent point was that she
had won the most recent three encounters.
From January 2006 until May 2007, Zhang Yining had experienced problems against Guo Yue.
Losses
In
January 2006, she lost in the Women¢s Singles final at the Croatian
Open and then lost again in February 2007 at the semi-final stage on
the ITTF Pro Tour in Kuwait. Disappointments for Zhang Yining but the
greatest came in May 2007 when she surrendered her World Championships
Women¢s Singles crown.
She was beaten by Guo Yue in the
semi-finals, the latter progressing to clinch the title with victory
over compatriot Li Xiaoxia.
Victories
However, since that date, in world ranking events, Zhang Yining has always won.
In
September 2007, she won in the final of the Women¢s Singles event at
the Panasonic China Open, then she won in September of the same year in
the semi-finals of the Volkswagen Women¢s World Cup and then in May
2008 in the final at the Volkswagen Open China.
Source: www.ittf.com
