“Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, seldom in a woman, never in a man”, so the saying goes; at the ITTF 2013 World Tour Qatar Open in Doha on the afternoon of Friday 22^nd February, Hong Kong’s Ng Wing Nam either proved the adage incorrect or was top of the rankings in the “seldom” category.

In a contest timed at exactly one hour, eventually she overcame the technically correct defensive skills of Japan’s Ayuka Tanioka; the latest in the line of Norio Takashima model backspin players.

Ng Wing Nam won in seven games (11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9).

Trying to penetrate the defensive wall erected by Ayuka Tanioka was not possible.

She is not is the style of the Chinese Olympic champions Zhang Yining and Li Xiaoxia who just keep executing relentless top spins from the forehand and pummel their adversary into submission; against defence she has to find other solutions.

In Doha on the third day of play the solution was work, work, work harder and work even harder; long arduous points which tested the mental attributes of the 20 year old from Hong Kong were the order of affairs.

Furthermore, great credit must also go to the patience and determination of Ayuka Tanioka; such was the level of concentration from both players that they would not have noticed if the caretaker had turned off the lights or a desert storm had engulfed the court.

“Really, was it one hour”, smiled Ng Wing Nam as she wiped beads of perspiration from her brow, relieved that she had survived the torment.

 “I won the first two games; then I lost the third”, reflected Ng Wing Nam. “In the third game I led 7-3 and lost; I really don’t know what happened, maybe I lost my concentration, at the end of the game I just kept asking myself how it happened.”

The reverse could well have destroyed Ng Wing Nam; she lost the next three games before recovering to win the next three.

“My coach told me to be patient; to play slowly, slowly, slowly and keep calm”, continued Ng Wing Nan; the coach in question was Li Huifen, the silver medallist in the Women’s Singles event at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.

Ng Wing Nam remained calm, Ng Wing Nam played slowly, Ng Wing Nam displayed immense reservoirs of patience; she fought she recovered but in the seventh game it seemed the tide had turned in favour of exquisite defence.

The only time Ng Wing Nam led was at 10-9!

 “Yes, I was always down, always losing”, concluded Ng Wing Nam. “I just tried to remain focused; defending she made many variations when playing backspin strokes, so it was vital my concentration never wandered.”

Success for Ng Wing Nam and I wonder; rarely if ever did I see Ayuka Tanioka attack, she has a textbook defensive style but my feeling is that if she is to emulate the leading Chinese female defenders in the guise of Wu Yang or Fan Ying then more confidence is needed in order to exercise attacking ploys.

A hard fought place in the second round of the Women’s Singles event secured by Ng Wing Nam, as seeding predicted; Ng Wing Nam was the no.30 seed as opposed to Ayuka Tanioka, a qualifier.

However, for leading seeds in action as matters commenced in the main draw of the Women’s Singles event, matters were less torturous.

China’s Ding Ning, the top seed, accounted for Egypt’s Galila Nasser (11-2, 11-5, 11-5, 11-3), Germany’s Wu Jiaduo, the no.7 seed, defeated Qatar’s Aia Mohamed (11-4, 11-4, 11-3, 11-2) and the Czech Republic’s Iveta Vacenovska, the no.8 seed, ended the hopes of Ng Wing Nam’s colleague, Guang Meng Yuan (11-9, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6).

Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall