MAGDEBURG, Germany, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic champion Ding Ning defeated Mima Ito from Japan 4-1 here on Saturday in the women's singles quarterfinal at ITTF German Open.
Both started with a strong attack-minded strategy. After winning the third game, Ding addressed Ito forehands with patience and took her shots long. Ito could not win with pace, and thus the experience of Ding led her to her first semifinals of this year's World Tour.
Ding found the solution to seeing off the hard battle with five games spanning just over 41 minutes, securing a 11-7, 11-13, 14-12, 11-8, 11-5 win with some measure of class.
"To sum up my performance today, I think it could have been better. We have a period not against each other so both of us have some technical need to adapt. Nowadays the way we play the game, we cannot just use one advantage to win, we must prepare better," said Ding.
The 30-year-old believed the reason why she won the game is because she seized the chance of key points in the third and the fourth games. "Wining against Ito, the best women's player in Japan might help me more understand the competition of the Olympic Games," said Ding.
