Ding Ning defeated Liu Shiwen at the Austrian Open 2011 final – Table Tennis Update
Ding Ning has completed her hat-trick as she has won the final of the Austrian Open 2011 at the Werner Schlager Academy. She is the current World Champion and now she has collected her third ITTF victory of the year. The final was played between Ning and
her compatriot Liu Shiwen who had a clear advantage over Ning in context of the previous games played between the two.
Shiwen has secured six out of nine ITTF ranking matches. The two players have played against each other and was a clear favourite in context of the history. Moreover, Ning has never won a final out of the three victories in her bag. Shiwen won all five matches
the two players had played against each other in 2010. Ding Ning however was determined to break Shiwen’s winning streak as she took charge of the final at the Werner Schlager Academy and finished the game with two sets remaining.
The best of seven game finished in Ding’s favour as she finished the game in five sets. After losing the first set 6-11 Ding came back strong in the second set as she won with a huge lead 11-1 and continued the next three sets 11-9, 11-7 and 11-7.
The intensity of competition can be analysed by understanding the fact that it was only the second time Shiwen has lost after reaching a final stage of an ITTF Pro Tour in her career. Shiwen has an admirable career and her first ITTF Pro Tour final defeat
was in February 2010 against her compatriot Guo Yue and that too in the semi-final.
Shiwen has been the top ITTF ranked player from January 2010 to September 2010 and is currently at the sixth position as per the September 2011 ITTF Ranking. She has one gold, two bronze and one silver medal to her account and is one of the youngest table
tennis players.
Winner of the Austrian Open 2011, Ding Ning currently holds the third position at the ITTF World Ranking and her best position so far has been in July 2011 when she secured a strong second position. Liu Shiwen has defeated Ding Ning on quite a few times
but the crux of the matter is that Ning was the better of two players at the Austrian Open final on September 25.
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