Defending champion David, the world number one for a record 56 months, is so dominant on the continent that the next best Asian woman is Hong Kong’s Annie Au down at 17 in the world rankings. One step below is the experienced Rebecca Chiu, the 2002 gold medallist and runner-up to David at the last Asiad in Doha four years ago.
The Malaysian star is also on a personal and professional high arriving in China having lifted a first Commonwealth Games gold, backed up by a bronze alongside One Beng Hee in the doubles.
“This is one of my highest achievements. The fact that it’s in a multi-sport event, which means so much for Malaysia, makes it even more important for me,” she said.
Pakistan’s Amir Atlas Khan and Saurav Ghosal are expected to make up the medal push.
“On court, Ong and I are rivals but off court we are the best of pals,” said Iskander, who can call on a kaleidoscope of national characteristics when the going gets tough. His father was born in Scotland while his grandfather was Norwegian.
“I don’t look Malaysian. It’s quite frustrating sometimes, when I’m being served by locals, they speak Malay behind my back. They think I’m a white person and that I don’t know Malay, but I can speak the language fluently.”
Chinese table tennis stars look unstoppable
China are again expected to be all-powerful at the Asian Games table tennis, although a Singapore squad coming off the back of a hugely successful Commonwealth Games could slow the fearsome juggernaut.
Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong will also be competitive, but a Chinese clean sweep is on the cards, particularly playing in front of a vociferous home crowd in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The Chinese, who have long dominated the sport, obliterated the opposition at the China Open in August, winning every title going and demonstrating they are likely to be unstoppable at the Asian Games from November 12 to 27.
In Guo Yan and Liu Shiwen they also have two of the top-ranked women’s players in the world, not to mention the rest of an enviable cast of world-class men and women paddlers.
“It’s dangerous,” Cai Zhenhua, a Chinese senior table tennis official, said last year in Japan after China’s third successive clean sweep of the world championships. “It is China’s obligation, China’s duty to improve table tennis in the world. It’s our duty to offer the secret of our success to the world.”
If anyone stands a chance of causing an upset in Guangzhou, it could be Singapore, whose women’s team have already proved this year that they have what it takes to beat the Chinese. In May, they shocked reigning champions and top-ranked China in Moscow in the world team championships in what was billed as one of the greatest table tennis upsets of all time.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2010.
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