Emerging stronger from defeat; that is the message for Hong Kong following the ITTF 2013 World Tour Austrian Open, which concluded in Wels on Sunday 27^th January.

No path to a higher level is always a smooth graph, there is no story book route to the highest pinnacle in sport; the task is learn from that defeat.

There is no better example than the reigning World champion, China’s Ding Ning; in May 2010 she experienced her darkest hour when being a member of the Chinese outfit that lost to Singapore in the quite sensational women’s final at the Liebherr World Team Championships in Moscow.

The defeat hurt Ding Ning, the pain was deep in the heart and she is adamant that the defeat in Moscow is one of the major reasons why she succeeded one year later at the GAC Group 2011 World Championships in Moscow.

Equally, after the controversy and the defeat in London last year in August in the final of the Women’s Singles event at the Olympic Games, watch her serve. She has made changes, notable changes, perhaps a little exaggerated but it would take the most eagle eyed umpire with a microscope to find fault.

Now therein lays the message for three of Hong Kong’s young players who competed in Austria.

After notable successes towards the end of 2012 for Lee Ho Ching in Germany and Poland; a good start to the year in Spain, it was defeat in Austria against Japanese opponents at the first hurdle.

In the Under 21 Women’s Singles event, she was beaten by Japan’s Yuki Matsumoto in a full distance five games duel (17-15, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8); in the Women’s Singles competition by Yuki Nonaka in six games (7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 4-11, 11-4, 11-4).

It was the same for Ng Wing Nam; her conquerors being Korean. She suffered defeat in the first round of the Under 21 Women’s Singles event, losing in four games to Choi Jeongmin (11-5, 11-3, 5-11, 11-9) and at the same stage of the Women’s Singles competition it was a reverse against Kang Misoon (11-4, 11-8, 11-5, 13-11).

Similarly, there was disappointment for Wong Chung Ting in the Men’s Singles event; he beat Serbia’s Ilija Majstorovic (12-10, 7-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-6) before losing to the host nation’s Feng Xiaoquan by the very narrowest of margins (11-8, 9-11, 10-12, 11-8, 14-12, 5-11, 12-10).

Meanwhile, the one saviour was the more experienced Jiang Huajun. In the Women’s Singles event, she accounted for Hungary’s Dora Madarasz in five games (11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5) and Korea’s Kang Misoon in a nail-biting seven games duel before losing to China’s Zhu Yuling, the recently crowned World Junior champion (11-8, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6).

Defeats against lower ranked opponents; it happens, it’s sport, it’s usual.

Now the time is to look at the reasons; no player was overwhelmed, minor adjustments, attention to detail and come back stronger.

However, whatever technical changes need to be made one factor above all must present following the ITTF 2012 World Tour Austrian Open; the defeats should hurt, really hurt and the players should be absolutely desperate to find the right medicine and eager for the next competition; eager to quell the pain.

Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo by: Plohe