|
Hong Kong Trio Strong Challengers for Honours at ITTF World Tour Spanish Open
The host nation’s Shen Yanfei heads the Women’s Singles seeding at the ITTF World Tour Spanish Open but if she is to secure the title, she will need to stave off a very strong challenge from Hong Kong.
Jiang Huajun, Lee Ho Ching and Ng Wing Nam all appear on the entry list for the four day tournament, a Euro-Africa Circuit event; play starts on Thursday 24th January and concludes on Sunday 27th January, being the first event this year’s itinerary.
Staged once again in Almeria, Jiang Huajun is the second seed in the Women’s Singles event with Lee Ho Ching and Ng Wing Nam being the fourth and sixth seeds respectively.
All three are realistic medal contenders in the Women’s Singles event and for Lee Ho Ching and Ng Wing Nam, favourites for honours in the Under 21 Women’s Singles competition.
They are the respective top two seeds.
Now, 28 years old, Jiang Huajun is the most experienced of the trio; right handed with one of the most powerful backhands in the world, she can prove a handful for the very best.
She made her ITTF World Tour debut in 2001 at the Swedish Open in Skovde, when representing China; later she moved to Hong Kong and in 2006 won her first ever Tour title when succeeding at the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open.
Not only did she win her first ever Tour title, she won in quite sensational circumstances.
After overcoming Hungary’s Petra Lovas by the very narrowest of margins in the opening round (she won 12-10 in the seventh game), she proceeded to beat the cream of China.
She ousted Zhang Yining in round two, Guo Yan in the penultimate round and Guo Yue in the final; at the quarter-final stage she defeated Italy’s Tan Wenling.
Later in 2007 she succeeded in both Chile and Korea but never has she matched the efforts of February 2006.
In fact since her success in Korea, arguably her greatest success on Tour came in Almeria.
At the Spanish Open in 2010 she was beaten in the Women’s Singles final by Japan’s Sayaka Hirano.
It is in the six years, since the pinnacle of achievement for Jiang Huajun, that Lee Ho Ching and Ng Wing Nam have come to prominence; both are products of the intensive Hong Kong coaching scheme.
They are different to their predecessors in the likes of Tie Yana, Jiang Huajun, Lin Ling, Lau Sui Fei and Zhang Rui; all learned their trade in China before crossing the border. Lee Ho Ching and Ng Wing Nam are very much home nurtured.
Furthermore they are both players who have grown with the ITTF Junior Circuit and both players who have undoubtedly benefited from the extensive ITTF Global Junior Programme.
In 2008 Lee Ho Ching succeed on the ITTF Junior Circuit in Taiyuan and in 2010 in Spain (a good omen perhaps); whilst later in the same year she was the runner up in Tunisia; the player against whom she suffered defeat in the final, a certain Ng Wing Nam. It is the one ITTF Junior Circuit title Ng Wing Nam has secured, having in 2008 been the runner up in France.
No longer in the junior age group, both are now 20 years old, the year 2012 saw the duo acclimatise to the senior scene. In particular in Germany and Poland, the tournaments which brought the GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour to a close, they excelled.
Coincidentally, in both tournaments, the same player ended their progress. In Germany it was the Czech Republic’s Iveta Vacenovska, in Poland it was China’s Ding Ning.
However, prior to those defeats; there were impressive wins.
In Germany, Lee Ho Ching beat Japan’s Miyu Maeda, the host nation’s second seeded Wu Jiaduo and Romania’s Daniela Dodean; one week later in Poland she accounted for Daniela Dodean once again, after having ousted the home country’s Antonina Szymanska and Denmark’s Mie Skov.
Departure at the quarter-final stage on both counts for Lee Ho Ching, for Ng Wing Nam it was an earlier farewell but not before she had made her presence felt. In Germany, she overcame Japan’s Yuki Nonaka in round one before, in Poland, ousting Carole Grundisch of France and Chinese Taipei’s Lee Ho Ching.
Also, Jiang Huajun made her presence felt in Germany and enjoyed her best tournament of the year on the GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour.
She reached the semi-final stage of the Women’s Singles event; just one problem, the player to end her adventures – Shen Yanfei.
By: Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
|
)
