46^th World Table Tennis Championships

Osaka, Japan · April 23 - May 6, 2001

China Wins Women’s Doubles

By Tim Boggan

Well, the Sunday morning paper, “The Daily Yomiuri,” turned out to be right after all. China, it said, already had “seven guaranteed gold medals” since “all non-Chinese players [had been] eliminated from the Championships.”

So what if Japan’s 34-year-old Akiko Takeda and her partner Mayu Kawagoe hadn’t played their semi’s yet. They’d barely survived that 22, 19, -16, 21 quarter’s match against the Croatian team of Tamara Boros and Eldijana Aganovic. Could they be expected to upset even one Chinese team?

But their defeat wouldn’t be for lack of support. As I walked into the Hall, the yellow-shirted, samurai-banded cheerleader was instructing his charges on how to clap in unison. And several minutes later here were the two Japanese players in question walking to their bench and smiling to their well-wishers.

And things did go 15-14-down pretty well against Yang Ying and Sun Jin until Kawagoe served off court, then whiffed one, then missed a backhand, and Takeda ended what 20-15 chances there were by serving into the net.

At the start of the 2nd, another Japanese rooting section made itself known and there were great claps of support as if the Japanese god of thunder had been prevailed upon for help. The court cameraman had shifted with the players’ switch of table-sides, and for the first time are treated to frontal shots of Takeda’s try-to-cut-the-ball-in-two sidespin serve, which ought to make for a good photo in some Japanese newspaper somewhere.

Kawagoe, meanwhile, has taken to prefacing her serves with what sounds to me like “Tock!” This provides a one-note contrapuntal effect to the periodic thunderclaps of applause which occur even as the Japanese pair moves in the 2^nd game from down 20-10 to an ending 21-12.

The Japanese cheerleader is warrior-like indefatiguable. Since his players are down 6-0 in the 3^rd, imagine the build-up by the time it’s 6-3. And, uh, the letdown at 13-3. Then, two for the Takeda team, and the Japanese fans – that is, just about everybody – are again vocally thankful. Up 14-10, the Chinese pair pause for a discussion. Time to regroup? Good idea, they decide, and win seven of the next eight points to no-nonsense advance to the final.

In the other semi’s, it’s the lefty /righty red Chinese, Wang Nan and Li Ju, against the righty/lefty blue Chinese, Zhang Yining and Zhang Yingying. Down 9-4 in the 1^st, Yining looks to her partner Yingying and asks, “What kind of ball should I serve now?” Yingying stoops and fingers her. Truth is, though, that Yingying’s own serves, footstamps and all, aren’t so effective either.

In fact, the blue-shirts look so doubly blue on those two giant screens hovering over the ends of the Hall that it’s no surprise they become progressively more disinterested and in the end seem merely to be going through the motions.

Which brings us to the drumbeats of another all-China final—this one between Olympic Champions Wang Nan and Li Ju and 2000 Pro Tour Grand Final winners Yang Ying and Sun Jin.

The combined one-two lefty/righty attack of Wang’s forehand and Li’s backhand was going, as they say, great guns until, up 14-7, Wang whispered some strategy to Li that-- during a stretch of some rude chatter and laughter from the Chinese gallery--backfired, and their lead was cut to 16-15. They quickly recovered though to win 21-16—and then went on with their fast-hands pick-up play to take the 2^nd and 3^rd , both at 14.

So, six titles in for China. One more to go--the Men’s…between, of course, two more Chinese.

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