Not Long Ago but Known for a Long Time
December 29, 2009

Zhang Yining (CHN)

Courtesy of ITTF December 27, 2009 - Now we stand on the threshold of the second decade of the millennium; is it really 10 years since the world prepared to welcome the dawn of the 21st century? It does not seem that long ago or is it is old age? Does time travel faster when you get older?

Conversely, as I look at the names in the higher echelons of the world rankings, they have a familiar ring; it’s as though I’ve known them for far more than 20 years but in reality I’ve known them for much less that ten.

Caused Confusion
A decade ago I had heard of Wang Hao and Zhang Yining who have occupied the no.1 ranking places throughout 2009 but a decade ago their names they caused confusion.

Wang Hao had attracted attention because he was the latest and arguably ultimate development in the penhold grip style of play, totally different from the Wang Hao who had also etched his name in Chinese table tennis history books.

A defensive player he had been a member of the gold medal winning team at the World Championships in New Delhi in 1987 and a silver medalist in the same event in 1993 in Gothenburg, in the intervening years he had travelled to play in Spain and became the first player to leave and then return to the national team.

Same Person?
Meanwhile for Zhang Yining, she arrived on the scene at the same time as Zhang Yingying.

Confusion, at first many thought it was the same person, a spelling mistake, but when they played doubles together the matter was clarified. Zhang Yingying was a left-hander penhold grip player.

Junior Life
Wang Hao and Zhang Yining had competed with reasonable degrees of success in the 1990s in the Asian Junior Championships but neither had emerged as singles winners.

Notably Wang Hao had lost in the 1999 final to Korea’s Ryu Seung Min, a name that was to haunt him. They met on over 20 occasions in the ensuing decade and Wang Hao lost only one of the duels; the Olympic Men’s Singles final in 2004.

Success in the 1990s
Conversely, Germany’s Timo Boll and Denmark’s Michael Maze, now firmly established in the top 20 of the Men’s World Rankings had experienced success in the 1990s by being crowned Boys’ Singles winners at the European Youth Championships.

Equally other male players, who currently occupy a top 20 Men’s World ranking, had appeared on the ITTF Pro Tour; Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Joo Se Hyuk, Oh Sang Eun, Werner Schlager, Cheung Yuk, Kalinikos Kreanga and Chuang Chih-Yuan were in varying degrees seasoned competitors.

Not Arrived
However, Li Ching had not made his presence felt; while neither Hao Shuai nor Chen Qi had cemented their places in the Chinese national team when New Year’s Day dawned in 2000. At the time Hao Shuai was 17 years old while Chen Qi was two years younger; furthermore, both had to wait before a men’s Singles title came their way on the ITTF Pro Tour.

Chen Qi had to wait until 2004 when he won in Japan while Hao Shuai had to wait until 2007 when he succeeded in Croatia.

Age
Equally, there were those as 2000 dawned who were simply so young. Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Zhang Jike were only 11 years old whist Jun Mizutani was only 10!

Any current 10 year old can take great heart from their exploits.

Known Players
Meanwhile, taking into consideration the players who currently appear in the top 20 of the Women’s World Rankings Wang Nan of course was well known as to a lesser extent were Kim Kyung Ah, Li Jia Wei and Tie Yana; while Li Jiao, Wu Jiaduo, Dang Ye Seo and Wang Yue Gu were waiting foreign nationality and Park Mi Young was very much the apprentice of Kim Bok Rae in the Korean line up.

The rest of the current top 20 were very young.

Very Young
Jiang Huajun was only 15 in January 2000 while Cao Zhen was 12, Li Xiaoxia and Guo Yue were 11 while Ding Ning was nine and Liu Shiwen was only eight years old!

They are familiar faces: Cao Zhen, Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Zhang Jike and Jun Mizutani all first attracted my attention at events organized under the auspices of the ITTF Global junior Program; while Guo Yue, at the age of 13 and Jiang Huajun four years older caught my eye at the Austrian Open in Wels in 2002.

All are names now well known, all are well established; all are names I’ve known for a long time but in reality not that long.