Saturday, January 9, 2010
7:59 PM
ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals - One Step Higher for Yu Meng Yu
20 year old Yu Meng Yu won the Under 21 Women’s Singles title at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in Macau today morning and in so doing went one step higher than in December 2008 when in the same event she had suffered in the gold medal contest at the hands of Japan’s Yuka Ishigaki.

The attacking style of Romania’s Daniela Dodean was much more to her liking than the stalwart backspin play of the Japanese star. Yu Meng Yu, who had beaten Dodean in the group stage in five games, was even more impressive in the final. She won in four straight games succeeding 11-9, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4. Singapore is likely to dominate this event again next year as Yu Meng Yu can still play in the U21 event next year. Yang Zi, Sun Bei Bei and Feng Tianwei were previous winners of the U21 events.

However, Gao Ning/Yang Zi had to settle for Silver after losing to Germany's Boll Timo/Christian Süss. Gao and Yang were completely overpowered by the Germans in the 1st set. In the 2nd set, Gao and Yang established an 8-4 lead, but were overthrown by the German duo, losing 11-9. Boll Timo/Christian Süss continued their brave run winning the 3rd set, 11-6. Gao Ning/Yang Zi gave their best in the 5th set, winning the 5th set 5-11. The Germans played error free after Gao Ning/Yang Zi levelled the score at 5 all. They won 11-5.

In the women's singles, Yu Meng Yu was the victim in the quarter finals. She lost to the talented China's Ding Ning. Ding Ning was dominating from start, winning the first 3 games with the score of 11-5 each. The fourth game saw the level of play rise with fast counter topspin rallies the order of the day, the proble for Yu Meng Yu was that Ding Ning was the superior player in the rallies, consistently changing direction with her fast forehanbd attacks to maintain her domination. Yu Meng Yu gave her best, in her efforts to be positive, Ding Ning did make errors but not enough; the game went the way as three before and the Chinese teenager duly booked a semi-final place.

Feng Tianwei will take on South Korea's Park Mi Young later.




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