By Henry Chen 

“I won the China Open championship title last year. This time, of course, I still want to win. I want to offer the title to my hometown fans,” Zhu Yuling said before the competition started.

But the spectators in the 2016 ITTF World Tour SheSays China Open witnessed an unexpected casualty from the hosting team in the Women’s Singles. Zhu Yuling, the third seeded and the defending champion, suffered elimination from the hands of Yang Haeun of Korea Republic in the quarterfinals.

“My performance in today’s match was not ideal. My preparations were not enough. I was competing against myself during the whole match. I wanted to practice what I trained. Her (Yang Haeun) performance was very stable. We reached the decider and the kind of stability was very good. The footwork was also okay,” said Zhu Yuling.

Of course, Yang Haeun was ecstatic with her unexpected victory. Considering the power Chinese players possess, beating them will certainly be a big challenge. Yet, she did it and it was in front of the home crowd of her opponent.

Therefore, Yang Haeun is very thankful for her coach who happens to be her mother as well.

“After losing the first game, my mother told me how to fight. It helped me to play relatively smooth afterwards. My mother has always been my coach. She has accompanied me in competitions since I was six years old. She used to be a member of the Korea Republic National Youth Team,” revealed Yang Haeun.

The player from Korea Republic believes that the reason why she won the match was that her opponent was anxious.

“I feel that Zhu Yuling played a little anxious. Everyone would want to win. But as you get more anxious in the competition, the worse your performance gets,” Yang Haeun concluded.

Source: Sina Sports