Li Jia Wei, Singapore’s reply to Chinese women in table tennis

Li Jia Wei of Singapore is world number seven and Wang Yue Gu of Singapore is world number eight. They are the reply to the formidable Chinese women in table tennis who occupy the first 5 ranks in ITTF World Women Table Tennis rankings. Li Jia Wei came into the top ten in June 2004 and she had even risen to the third place in October 2005 and December 2005. Ironically, Li Jia Wei was born in Beijing, China, on August 9, 1981. She later shifted to Singapore and had represented Singapore in many International games and had won many gold medals for Singapore. One of earliest titles was at the South East Asian Championships in 1998, held at Bangkok, Thailand, when she won the singles title and mixed doubles title.

In the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Li Jia Wei was eliminated in the round of 16 but in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, she obtained the fourth place in women’s singles event. She won the Commonwealth Championships in both the singles and doubles events in 2000 in Singapore and in 2001 in New Delhi, India. She was the singles titleholder of the ITTF Pro Tour in 2004 in Chicago, United States and in 2005, in Velenje, Slovenia and in Fort Lauderdale, United States. She again won the ITTF Pro Tour singles and doubles title in 2006 in St. Petersburg, Russia. AT the 2006 Women’s World Cup in Urumqi, China, she claimed the third spot, after the fourth place at the 2004 World Cup in Hangzhou, China.

In July 2004, Li Jia Wei had defeated Tamara Boros of Croatia to obtain her first Women’s Singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour. In the finals, Li Jia Wei had won the first 3 games but Boros came back from behind to take the next 3 games. In the tense seventh game, Li Jia Wei kept her nerve and took the title. In 2005, Li Jia Wei reached the finals at 3 tournaments on the ITTF Pro Tour. She triumphed in the Liebherr Slovenian Open after beating Lin Ling of Hong Kong in the finals. However, at the Volkswagen Open in Korea and the TMS Chinese Taipei Open, she lost in the finals and had to settle for the second spot.

At the Fort Lauderdale U.S. Open, Li Jia Wei was defending the crown but was seeded number two at the tournament. However, she successfully defended the crown she had won in Chicago 12 months earlier. In the finals, Li Jia Wei defeated Tie Yana of Hong Kong in 4 straight games. Li took the first game at 11-3 and the second at 11-4. In the third game, Tie Yana took an early lead of 4-1 but Li won the next 8 points in a row. She finally won the game 11-6. Again, in the fourth game Tie Yana established a lead of 7-3 but was unable to sustain the momentum. Li accelerated and took the game 11-8 and the match, successfully defending her title.