Zhang Yining, a living table tennis legend

Zhang Yining was born in Beijing, China on October 5, 1981. She started playing table tennis at the age of 5 and at the age of 14, she joined the Chinese National Team. She has been holding the first place in the ITTF world women’s table tennis ranking from January 2003, an incredible achievement by any standard. In the last several years, she had always been at the top 3 spots in women’s rankings. The best moment of her table tennis career came when she won both the singles and doubles gold medals in the 2004 Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece. She confirmed her status as the undisputed number one female player in the world of table tennis by winning the 2009 Women’s Singles title at the Tournament of Champions. Zhang Yining won her first title in the 1998 Malaysian open, claiming both the singles and doubles titles. In the same year, she again won the singles title in the Italian Open. In 2000, she was again the women’s singles champion in the Polish Open and Swedish Open. She triumphed again in the singles event in the 2002 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals. In 2003, she was the winner of the Croatian Open and China Open. After that, Zhang Yining had won so many women’s singles and doubles titles that listing all of them would be a very difficult task. She is the champion of champions.

To make it short, in December 2005, she beat compatriot Guo Yan in the Women’s World Cup in Guangzhou in 4 games at 11-8, 14-12, 11-7, and 11-5. With that win, she became the first table tennis player to win the singles title for women at the World Cup, World Championships, ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals and Chinese National Games in the same year.

Perhaps the crowning moment in her illustrious table tennis career was when she won 2 Gold Medals in the 2004 Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece. She defeated Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea in the women’s singles finals. Kim was a hard hitter of the ball but Zhang played an aggressive topspin game to counter Kim. She won in 4 games, 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, and 11-2. A day earlier, Zhang had partnered Wang Nan to win the women’s doubles title for her fist Olympic Gold Medal.

At the ITTF Tournament of Champions in Changsha, China, in December 2006, Zhang Yining was merciless in the finals against her long-standing doubles partner Wang Nan. Zhang took the first game 11-9, the second 11-7, the third 11-8, and the fourth 11-4. Her sheer power overwhelmed Wang Nan. A few days earlier, at the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in Hong Kong, she had beaten compatriot Li Xiaoxia in the finals to retain that title and win it for the fourth time in her career. However, the match went to 7 games. Li won the first game 11-9. Zhang took the next 2 games 11-3 and 11-2. A lapse of concentration on the part of Zhang allowed Li to come back into the match, when she won the fourth and fifth game 11-7 and 11-8. But Zhang promptly changed her tactics and playing at her best, took the sixth and seventh games 11-6 and 11-7, to clinch the title.

Zhang Yining won the 2008 Women's Singles title at the Volkswagen Open Japan beating Guo Yan in the semis and Li Xiaoxia in the final. She regained her 2009 Women's Singles title by beating national team colleague, Guo Yue. But Guo Yue and Zhang Yining added to their collection of trophies by winning the Women's Doubles title at the 2009 Salwa Cup Kuwait Open.

Undoubted by the end of 2009, the most successful player in the 14 year history of the ITTF Pro Tour in singles events will be Zhang Yining.