Cheng Yinghua, the ageless wonder

Cheng Yinghua was born in November 1958. Cheng played with a shakehand grip, with powerful loop stroke and blocks on both the wings. Cheng was in the Chinese Men’s national team for several years, but was not given chances due to their preference for penhold style players. In 1982, Cheng reached the finals of the Chinese Elite Championships. He won the Finland Open in 1983. Slowly, Cheng became part of the United States table tennis team. In the 1988 U.S. Open, Mikael Appelgren of Sweden defeated Cheng, after a strongly contested match. In the 1993 U.S. Open at Indianapolis, Cheng won his second U.S. Open championship, beating Johnny Huang. Cheng was the number one player in the United States from 1988 to 1998, after playing for China from 1977 to 1987. Cheng won the U.S. Men’s Singles Championship 4 times, the U.S. Mixed Doubles Championship 5 times, and the U.S. Men’s Doubles Championship 3 times. He won the U.S. Open Men’s Singles Tournament in 1985 and again in 1993.

At the age of 46, Cheng won the U.S. Nationals in 2004. In that tournament, the match of Cheng against Adam Hugh in the round of 16 was one of the true highlights. Adam was just 16 at that time, facing 46-year old Cheng. Adam won the first game 13-11. However, Cheng came back strongly to take the second game 11-3. In the third game, Cheng was having problems with Adam’s loop strokes that came spinning into his forehand side. Still, he won the game 13-11. After that, Cheng did not give Adam any chance. He took the next two games 11-6 and 11-9. In the semifinals, Cheng defeated Khoa Nguyen 12-10, 11-7, 11-6, and 11-9.

In the finals, it was a war of veterans. Cheng at 46 and David at 41, the battled it out in real style. Cheng won the first game but David came back in the second game. Cheng took the third game. David again leveled in the fourth game. However, Cheng took the next two games and finally triumphed 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, and 12-10. It was Cheng’s fourth singles title in the U.S. Nationals. After the win, Cheng commented, “I served deep to his forehand and middle, and sometimes his backhand, sometimes topspin, sometimes backspin. It's because I have no power off his push, so I let him open and move him around.”

Again, astonishingly, he reached the semifinals of the U.S. Nationals in 2006, at the age of 48. Again, in the 2006 Matthew J. Murad Memorial Open Championships, Cheng defeated Khaleel Asgarali in the quarterfinals and Shao Yu in the semifinals. The final was a clash of the master against the student, Han Xiao, whom Cheng had been coaching for more than a decade. Cheng managed to win 11-6, 11-9, 11-9, and 12-10 to take the title. Cheng has been coaching a number of other U.S. table tennis players also for several years, including players like Rob Trudell, Ken Hoover, Joe Patti, and Matt Winkler.