Another exit in Athens...

Ai-chan is good but her opponent is better

Stayed up at 12:00 am, yesterday, to watch the table tennis match between Ai-chan and Kim from Korea. Kim, ranked 6th in the world, played with a patient technique and Ai-chan wasn't patient enough to follow this slow pace. I can feel that the way Ai-chan plays is more to the aggresive attack and not slow and patient play.

I think that her opponent caught her with that technique as I didn't see Kim attacked much, but just played with the "ball cutting" style - that is to say, slow. On the other hand, Ai-chan wasn't that patient enough with that playing style of Kim. It was clearer when the point gap was wide. When Kim leaded, Ai-chan tried to catch up for an equaliser by playing it fast. Most of the time, it caught up with the net or off the table. When she tried to hurry herself, it ended up with misses here and there. Since I am not an expert in table tennis, I am not sure if this was a trap set by Kim for Ai-chan or it was a miss by Ai-chan.

After losing the first two set with 8-11, and 5-11, Ai-chan got a hold on the third set and won the set with 11-7. Then came the fourth set which I think was a great and exciting set, and actually a decisive set for Ai-chan, spiritually. With just another point for Kim to end the set while Ai-chan was 2 points behind Kim, 8-10, Ai-chan fought back to make a deuce. From that point onwards, both catched up with each other until a point where the score was 13-13. Kim then took the advantage point to get to 13-14, and won the set with 13-15.

To Ai-chan, the fourth set was an important set because if she lost this set, it will weaken her mentally. A 2-2 result was surely better than 1-3 for her, mentally. And with the fourth game lost, Kim continued to grab the fifth set to end the match with 1-4. With that result, Kim proceeds to the quarter final.

While it was a sad result, it was actually a good match from the point of view of a spectator. However the result is, try harder next time!

Ganbatte Ai-chan... starts to focus on the next Beijing 2008 Olympic rather than dragging yourself with the result.