Gao Jun, the ageless women’s champion from the U.S.

Gao Jun was born on January 25, 1969 in Boading, China. Her father introduced her to table tennis when she was just 5 years old. She joined the Chinese National Team when she was 16. She had been playing for the past 30 years. She was part of the Chinese National Table Tennis Team when they participated in the 1992 Olympic Games held in Barcelona, where she won a silver medal in the Women’s Doubles, partnering Chen Zihe. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, she reached the round of 32 in women’s singles events. Earlier, in 1991, with Chen Zihe, she had won the Women’s doubles title in World Championships. In 1993 World Championships, in the singles event, she was placed third. In 1994, she won the Women’s singles title in the U.S. Open. In the same year, she left the Chinese National Team and settled in the United States after getting married to Frank Chang.

In the United States, Gao Jun had been the U.S. Women’s Singles and Doubles champion from 1996 for several years. In the ITTF World Women’s Table Tennis rankings, Gao Jun is placed thirteenth. In February 2007 she was in the ninth place, with her best ranking being number seven in February 2006. Gao Jun reached the World Championship semifinals in 1993 in Gothenburg, Sweden and the quarterfinals in 2003 in Paris, France.

At the 2005 Pro Tour Grand Finals in Fuzhou, China, Gao Jun reached the quarterfinals in the Women’s singles event and was the winner of the doubles event. At the 2006 Pro Tour Grand Finals in Hong Kong, she reached the round of 16 in the singles and was runner-up in the doubles. At the ITTF Pro Tour for Women, she was the winner in the singles and doubles event in 2005 in Taipei, Chinese Taipei. In 2 of the ITTF Pro Tour matches, she reached the semifinals and in several others, she reached the quarterfinals in the Women’s singles events.

At the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in December 2005, the Doubles title was won by a pair not representing the same country for the first time in the 10-year history of the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals. Gao Jun of the United States and Shen Yanfei of Spain combined together to win the title. They defeated Kim Bok Rae and Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea in the finals 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, and 11-3.

In the Women’s Singles final at the TMS Chinese Taipei Open in June 2005, Gao Jun with her penholder grip was facing Li Jia Wei of Singapore, a shakehand grip player. Li Jia Wei took the first game 11-8, playing with heavy spin on the ball to the backhand of Gao Jun. She again went ahead in the second game at 11-6. However, Gao Jun used her experience and changed the speed and variation on the ball. She won the third game 11-5. The fourth game was an extended one, with both players fighting it out at 16-all. Then Gao Jun surged ahead and took the game at 18-16. In the fifth game, again they raced neck and neck to 11-all but Gao Jun won the next 2 points and took the game 13-11. In the sixth game, Gao Jun jumped to a lead of 8-4 but Li Jia Wei reduced the margin to 8-7. Gao Jun then extended the lead to 10-8. Li Jia Wei saved one match point but let go of the second with a loose shot. Gao Jun won the game 11-9. She earned her first Women’s Singles title at an ITTF Pro Tour tournament at the ripe age of 36.