9/11/2008        PANASONIC China Open

China’s Zhang Yining, gold medallist in the Women’s Singles event at the recent Olympic Games, has withdrawn from the Panasonic China Open which started in Shanghai on Thursday 11th September 2008.

Zhang Yining has not competed since successfully defending her Olympic title; also she withdrew from last week’s Volkswagen Women’s World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The fact that Zhang Yining, originally seeded number one, will not compete does not necessitate any change to the draw.

Chen I-Ching of Chinese Taipei, the somewhat surprise winner of Group One now occupies the top place in the draw.

Difficult Hurdles
Cheng I-Ching is in the same quarter of the Women’s Singles draw as Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun but before she has any dreams of a last eight places there are hurdles to overcome; one potentially very difficult hurdle being China’s Ding Ning.

Ding Ning won the Girls’ Singles title at the World Junior Championships in 2005 and played alongside Zhang Yining and Guo Yan in the Beijing Capital team that won the Chinese Women’s Super League in 2007.

Final Revisited Potentially
Meanwhile, in the second quarter of the draw appears China’s Li Xiaoxia and Hong Kong’s Tie Yana, the finalists in last week’s Volkswagen Women’s World Cup; whilst in the lower half the draw the potential quarter-finals are Singapore’s Feng Tianwei against China’s Guo Yan and an all Chinese battle between Guo Yue and Liu Shiwen.

However, that is conjecture not fact. The fact is Zhang Yining will not be involved.