Table tennis: Queen defeats underdog

BY SUZANNE McFADDEN

Wang Nan is 21 and already a legend in China - the table tennis queen as Michael Jordan is basketball's king.

The undisputed world No 1 is rich, in Chinese terms, and will be looked after well for the rest of her life, as will her family and all their relations.

The world's richest man, Bill Gates, has come to watch her play.

At the other end of the little blue Olympic ping pong table is Li Chunli, aged 38, who could walk down any street in New Zealand, her adopted home, and be ignored as another Asian tourist in a tracksuit.

Li and Wang grew up in neighbouring provinces in China and went to the same national table tennis school in Beijing. Yet their lives have taken different paths.

Yesterday, the table tennis star of the Manawatu went down fighting to the world singles, doubles and teams champion in the second round of the women's Olympic contest in Sydney.

But Li was undeterred. Even though this was the highest point she has ever scaled in three Olympic Games, she still believes she can be the world No 1.

Li came to New Zealand a decade ago, when she could not break into the top Chinese team.

Li knows that had she stayed in China - where the retirement age is 23 - she would be a mother today.

She still finds it difficult playing against opponents from her birthplace.

Whenever the crowd at the State Sports Centre yesterday erupted into a chant of "Jai-O Wang Nan" (Let's Go, Wang Nan), Li's game would slump and she would lose the next two or three points.

"She struggles with that," says coach Murray Finch.

"The Chinese in the crowd don't want the ex-pats to win in the slightest.

"Whenever it happened I tried to catch the eye of the Kiwis in the crowd to get them yelling."

Li, her short red-brown hair glistening with sweat, was beaming when she walked off centre-stage and waved to the New Zealanders above her. But inside she was torn apart - she and her coach believed she could have won.

Wang, a pony-tailed left-hander, was not easy to beat. She is a cool, casual customer whose face hardly flickers in the heat of a match.

"She's really good, eh?" smiled Li. "At the beginning she did not know my ball very well. She hit it slow so I smashed her. After a couple of points she knew me better.

"Technically, I am very close to her, but in the head she concentrates much longer than me.

"A draw against the world No 1 is very difficult. But if I want to be the best player in the world I have to beat her. She was just lucky today," Li said. She was only half joking.

Before the match, Li monotonously and meticulously played the same shots over and over with her sister, Karen, who was knocked out of the doubles earlier in the week.

"Thank goodness Karen wasn't playing Wang Nan," said Finch. "They came through the ranks together, and she is Karen's idol."

In the first game, Li caught up to be within a point of Wang at 17-18 - wheezing a "sshh" noise every time she hit the ball. But she did not score another point in that game.

The New Zealander took an early lead in the second game, but Wang's casual brilliance brought the two equal at 14-14, then she won 21-15.

When Li aced the world champ for the first point in the next game, it was not a sign of a turnaround. Li did not score again until Wang hit her between the eyes 10 points later. She went down 21-9 in the final clash.

Finch thinks Wang will win these Olympics, but he still believes Li could have won gold if yesterday's result had been different.

"There are three or four players who could have won this tournament, and we have just seen one of them lose," he said.

"If Chunli had been on the other side of the draw, no one could have beaten her."

Li smiles when asked if she wants to go to the 2004 Olympics, aged 42: "I will see how it goes."