Reigning World Champion Ding Ning has missed out on the fourth and final spot for the upcoming 2013 World Table tennis Championships in Paris after a surprising loss to young rookie Hu Limei. Find full details about the 2013 China Trials here
Remember the name: Hu Limei
Photo by: sports.sina.com.cn
Thursday 7th and Friday 8th March saw the penultimate days of the 2013 World Championships squad trials for the Chinese women’s team cause major upsets with eighteen year old Hu Limei from the second team being given the chance to show her worth due to Guo Yue having withdrawn from the trials due to injury. The teenager did not disappoint and surprisingly managed to secure an impressive 3-0 win over the current World number one Ding Ning.
Ding Ning commented “Although Hu Limei is only in the second team I prepared well for the match as I knew she had been playing well since the group stage, however I encountered many difficulties throughout the match and my ball control was poor during the match”
Hu Limei also impressed the new Head coach of the Chinese women’s national team Kong Linghui with her performance during the trials. The young player faced her first taste of defeat in the competition against Wu Yang in the finals; despite this she has certainly attracted everyone’s attention including Kong Linghui.
The new head coach commented “Hu Limei brought many surprises to the competition; due to Guo Yue’s withdrawal Limei was promoted to the national team on March 1st to replace the injured player. She played extremely well throughout as she remained unbeaten throughout the group stages. I have high hopes for her and hope that she will continue to surprise us all”.
Photo by: Li Wujun's Weibo
Based on the rules Ding Ning still had a chance to be in Paris if she won all her matches today, her first opponent was Chen Meng who she managed to defeat in a close 3-2, Ding Ning secured her two matches and booked herself a place in the final against Hu Limei. This was now their second encounter and once again Ding Ning was met by a strong on form Limei, the first set was close with Ning managing to get ahead of the youngster and take it 12-10, however this only made the World number one more determined going into the second set as she gained a 7-3 lead, this was not for long however as the young challenger was able to catch up and level the score at 8-8 before taking the second set and levelling the sets at 1-1. Ning didn’t lose her fighting spirit as she tried hard to gain an advantage over Limei but eventually fell to a 5 game defeat.
With Hu Limei’s five game victory against Ding Ning (10-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5) she had successfully booked herself a well deserved place for the 2013 World Championship’s women’s singles in Paris alongside, Li Xiaoxia, Liu Shiwen and Wu Yang.
For all the latest news, results and videos from the China Trials 2013 click here. To catch up on all the latest highlighted matches from the China Trials visit our Media Library.
Like and tweet our articles to the World. Lets spread the word of Table Tennis.
Source: TableTennisTa
Written by: Emily Standing
TableTennisDaily
Remember the name: Hu Limei
Photo by: sports.sina.com.cn
Thursday 7th and Friday 8th March saw the penultimate days of the 2013 World Championships squad trials for the Chinese women’s team cause major upsets with eighteen year old Hu Limei from the second team being given the chance to show her worth due to Guo Yue having withdrawn from the trials due to injury. The teenager did not disappoint and surprisingly managed to secure an impressive 3-0 win over the current World number one Ding Ning.
Ding Ning commented “Although Hu Limei is only in the second team I prepared well for the match as I knew she had been playing well since the group stage, however I encountered many difficulties throughout the match and my ball control was poor during the match”
Hu Limei also impressed the new Head coach of the Chinese women’s national team Kong Linghui with her performance during the trials. The young player faced her first taste of defeat in the competition against Wu Yang in the finals; despite this she has certainly attracted everyone’s attention including Kong Linghui.
The new head coach commented “Hu Limei brought many surprises to the competition; due to Guo Yue’s withdrawal Limei was promoted to the national team on March 1st to replace the injured player. She played extremely well throughout as she remained unbeaten throughout the group stages. I have high hopes for her and hope that she will continue to surprise us all”.
Photo by: Li Wujun's Weibo
Based on the rules Ding Ning still had a chance to be in Paris if she won all her matches today, her first opponent was Chen Meng who she managed to defeat in a close 3-2, Ding Ning secured her two matches and booked herself a place in the final against Hu Limei. This was now their second encounter and once again Ding Ning was met by a strong on form Limei, the first set was close with Ning managing to get ahead of the youngster and take it 12-10, however this only made the World number one more determined going into the second set as she gained a 7-3 lead, this was not for long however as the young challenger was able to catch up and level the score at 8-8 before taking the second set and levelling the sets at 1-1. Ning didn’t lose her fighting spirit as she tried hard to gain an advantage over Limei but eventually fell to a 5 game defeat.
With Hu Limei’s five game victory against Ding Ning (10-12, 12-10, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5) she had successfully booked herself a well deserved place for the 2013 World Championship’s women’s singles in Paris alongside, Li Xiaoxia, Liu Shiwen and Wu Yang.
For all the latest news, results and videos from the China Trials 2013 click here. To catch up on all the latest highlighted matches from the China Trials visit our Media Library.
Like and tweet our articles to the World. Lets spread the word of Table Tennis.
Source: TableTennisTa
Written by: Emily Standing
TableTennisDaily
