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Singapore's Hong pulls off upset
SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) -- Singapore's Jing Jun Hong staged another upset to move into the semifinals of the women's table tennis tournament at the Olympics on Friday, knocking out 10th-seeded Mihaela Joana Steff of Romania. Jing's tough 22-20 21-12 19-21 22-20 victory followed a first-round upset of world number four Sun Jin and a five-set win over China's Geng Lijuan in the second round. "I won the first game, which is a key game. That must have affected Steff mentally," said Jing, who was not seeded going into the Olympics. Jing, who was born in Shanghai and became a Singaporean citizen in 1994, was once ranked 10th in the world as a member of the powerful Chinese national team.
"The Chinese are very tough, I can only do my best," said Jing, who is now only ranked 31st in the world. Li advanced with a 12-21 21-14 21-19 21-5 win over Ryu Ji-Hye of South Korea. Li said she was not thinking about the gold medal yet. "I haven't thought much about it. I am focusing on my matches one at a time," she said. Jing said she has had a difficult draw through the qualifying round, but her confidence has increased. "It looks smooth, but I have actually had quite a difficult run. Before my match with China's Sun Jin I thought I had no chances of winning, but I was very lucky," she said. Another transplanted Chinese, Chen Jing of Taiwan, beat Qianhong Gotsch of Germany 17-21 19-21 21-13 21-10 21-17 to reach the other semifinal. She plays the top seed, Wang Nan of China, who advanced with a relatively easy 21-19 21-8 22-20 win over Chire Koyama of Japan. Koyama and Gotsch were also born in China.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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