AYG Table Tennis: China sweep all 4 golds on offer

Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Monday, July 6, 2009 – The final day of the Asian Youth Games table tennis competition saw China claiming all 4 gold medals up for grabs: The Mixed Team, Mixed Doubles, Boys Singles and Girls Singles titles. The Chinese already had 1 gold in the bag 2 days ago when they triumphed over DPR Korea in the Mixed Teams finals.

The day got off with the semi-finals of the girls and boys singles. China’s Chen Meng and Gu Yuting were up against Japan’s Tanioka Ayuka and DPR Korea’s Kim Song I respectively in the girls singles, while their compatroits Yin Hang and Cheng Jingqi faced Niwa Koki and Kim Donghyun in the boys.

Chen Meng was pushed to her limits against Ayuka as their match went the full 7 sets and lasted more than 30 minutes. Ayuka came back from 2 sets down at 8-11, 5-11 to take the third 11-6. Chen Meng maintained the 2-set advantage when she won the fourth game 13-11, but Ayuka proved that she was no pushover, forcing both of them to play the rubber set by claiming the next 2 games 11-5, 11-4.

At this time, the crowd was buzzing with the excitement of a possibility of a great upset, where there will not be an all-Chinese final. The final game was closely matched, and went into a deuce. Chen Meng eventually edged out Ayuka 13-11.

“I can perform better. The match was very fast and exhausting,” reflected 15 year old Ayuka in Japanese after her defeat.

Japan’s Coach Yamaguchi Enyo commented on Ayuka’s performance, saying, “Her performance was very good, but did not exceed my expectations.”

Ayuka’s teammate in the boys’ singles, Niwa Koki, also gave World No.1 Yin Hang a scare when he won the second game 11-3. However, Niwa’s fighting spirit was not enough to conquer the experience and skills of the Chinese, as he lost 4-1 to Yin Hang.

An all-Chinese final was confirmed when Gu Yuting and Cheng Jingqi easily beat Kim Song I and Kim Donghyun in the other girls and boys singles semi-finals respectively. Both matches were straight-set wins lasting about 15 minutes.

The mixed doubles final was played before the individual singles finals, and Gu Yuting and Yin Hang were both paired up against Chen Meng and Cheng Jingqi in an all-Chinese affair. Hence none of their coaches were in sight during the match, and the 2 partners thus had to cooperate and strategise against their fellow teammates.

It was Gu and Yin who came out tops after 4 sets, in a best of 5 format. Chen and Cheng actually started off strong but Gu and Yin came from behind to take that first set. A few fast rallies were played, evoking cries from excited supporters when both sets of players managed to receive seemingly-impossible shots. Gu and Yin eventually prevailed 12-10, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7.

Chen Meng lived up to the title of World No. 1 when she took the girls singles crown by beating compatriot Gu Yuting 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8. Chen started off shakily as she made costly errors in the first game. However, she got back to her winning form when she made Gu move out of her comfort zone to return her shots in subsequent games.

“I could not break her momentum during the game,” said Gu on why she might have lost to Chen. This is her first international game, making it to China’s AYG team after many competitions back in China.

World No. 1 Yin Hang also showed why he is the crown prince of boys’ table tennis by defeating Cheng Jingqi 11-9, 11-5, 2-11, 11-9, 13-11. Yin Hang was in control of the game as his fierce returns were too much for Jingqi to handle. At times, all Jingqi could do was to block the ball and send it flying high, giving his opponent easy points.

“My performance was average. I wanted to beat him and focused on my strategy last night,” Cheng Jingqi commented.

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