Table Tennis: Athens likely swansong for Chunli

1.00pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

Bejing in 2008 looks one Olympics too far for venerable New Zealand table tennis player, Li Chunli.

Performing at the Games in her native China aged 46 appeals to her but the seemingly-ageless Chunli revealed she was considering her international future for the first time and that these may well be the fourth and final Olympics for her adopted country.

It began in perfect style for her yesterday.

Chunli beat American Tawny Banh 4-1 to advance to the singles third round.

Earlier she combined with sister Karen Li to beat familiar Australian foes Jian Fang Lay and Miao Miao 4-2 to reach the same stage in the women's doubles.

Her representative commitments are already severely limited because of her career as a professional on the Japanese circuit.

Although she loves donning the black shirt, in recent years that has been restricted to world championships and Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

She will soon sign a new contract for next year which may see her opportunities to leave Japan reduced. That could leave her no choice but to wave goodbye to the Olympic Games.

"Maybe, I think. After this tournament I will decide, but not at the moment," she told NZPA.

The curtain could come down in the next couple of days, with difficult opponents lying in wait.

She faces Chinese world No 1 Yining Zhang tomorrow (Tuesday night NZT), a match she needs to win to continue her record of notching two singles wins at every Olympics she has attended.

"It will be exciting," she said.

"She's a very good player but I've never played against her. I've watched a video of her against a Japanese player. I'm looking to win, if I play well."

Zhang probably would not be as awkward as Banh, who fielded a bat that confused Chunli through the early part of her 11-8 12-10 11-9 8-11 11-9 win.

"Her backhand rubber is a little bit strange, not normal rubber," she said.

"The ball did not go forward so sometimes I was a little bit slow. I should have played quicker."

At times the Galatsi table tennis hall could easily have been Bejing, such was the number of Chinese and Southeast Asian players representing other nations.

Banh is from Vietnam while the Li sisters defeated another Chinese-born duo in their doubles clash, won 12-10 8-11 6-11 11-5 11-2 14-12.

Their next opponents are Germans Nicole Struse and Elke Wosik today (2100 NZ time). Struse is a former European champion who formed half the double who knocked Karen and Chunli out of the Sydney Olympics.

Chunli felt she and her sister had improved from four years ago and gave them a decent chance of upsetting their higher-rated opponents.

- NZPA