On July 24, Beijing time, the Table Tennis Competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games began, due to the world ranking, the four national table tennis players who participated in the singles directly advanced to the third round and did not appear in the singles competition on the first day.
In the past Olympic Games, without the participation of Chinese athletes and other strong players of other associations, the singles preliminary rounds, and even the first two rounds of the main tournament, appeared to be relatively "deserted", and the attention was not very high, but in the field in Tokyo, the competition between Austrian star Liu Jia and Syrian 12-year-old Hend Zaza has unexpectedly and reasonably received widespread attention.
Austria's Liu Jia is no stranger to many veteran fans, and she, Zhang Yining and Li Jiawei are alumni of Beijing Shichahai Sports School. The peak of Liu Jia's career was around 2000, at the Sydney Olympic Games, she reached the top 8 in singles and doubles, and the following year at the Osaka World Table Tennis Championships, she eliminated China's Yang Ying in singles competitions. At the last Rio Olympics, Liu Jia became the Olympic flag bearer of the Austrian delegation, and coincidentally, this time in Tokyo, the 12-year-old youngster standing in front of her was also the flag bearer of the opening ceremony of the Syrian delegation at the Olympic Games.
Liu Jia also found it quite interesting: "Yesterday at the opening ceremony I also saw that she was a flag bearer, I was the flag bearer of the last (Austria), I also said that our flag bearer and the flag bearer want to compete, yesterday the players joked with me, saying that I did not sleep well yesterday, just for this ball." Perhaps it is precisely because Liu Jia once had several balls on the field that were once confused by the opponent, "Although I was reminding myself to pay attention to the connection and not to despise the opponent, but I myself was all blindfolded." I don't think I'd be able to beat her if she was 14 or 16. With her training conditions, she can play like this, the hand feels really good, and the rhythm is good. This kind of talented athlete really needs to be cultivated. ”
After winning 4-0, Liu Jia had a feeling of relief. At the moment of the draw, Liu Jia used the word "shock" to express her feelings, "In fact, I was very nervous, yesterday I said to my daughter, 'Mommy's opponent tomorrow is two years older than you'." My daughter's first words were, 'Then you must not lose.' Speaking of her opponent, Liu Jia said sincerely: "I think she is really good, it is not easy, and she is a girl, who participated in the Olympic Games at the age of 12, and I actually admire her in my heart." ”
After the victory, Liu Jia defeated Ukraine's Gaponova 4-2 in the first round of singles in the evening to advance to the second round of women's singles. If she can win the next match, she will face Puerto Diaz in the quarter-finals. Liu Jia, who has participated in the Olympic Games for the sixth time, has taken the results very lightly: "Since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, I have played for 21 years, (compared with my former teammates Zhang Yining and Li Jiawei of the Beijing team) The results are not necessarily my best, but the time is my longest." In fact, we are now the strongest team competition, but as soon as the lottery came out, we laughed, for the Chinese team, there is no goal, we feel, warm up for the Chinese team, we will be happy ping-pong, don't be too humiliated on the field. Singles I'm going to be the last one, enjoy it, win or lose I want to go home laughing. ”
Liu Jia, who calmly said the decision to retire, also quipped: "In fact, some people joke that I can rest for two years and then fight back at the Paris Olympics, but I really dare not say that I still want to play Paris." After playing this Olympic Games, I don't plan to participate in international competitions, really enough, I went to Austria in 1997, before the Beijing team also practiced for so many years, plus more than 30 years of table tennis career, I think I can consider starting another world. ”