Birmingham, Aug 03: Gong Ruina lost her world title when she was beaten in the final of the women's singles by her Chinese compatriot Zhang Ning here today. The 22-year-old from Hunan was beaten 11-6, 11-3 by the 28-year-old from Liaoning, who took advantage brilliantly of what may prove to be her last chance of the title.

It was clear from the moment that second-seeded Zhang despatched Camilla Martin, the former world champion from Denmark for the loss of only six points in the quarter-finals that she was in outstanding form, and had made herself the unofficial favourite for the title. However there were signs of early match nerves as Zhang quickly went 4-0 down in the biggest final of her life, before finding her touch and rhythm.

She signalled that she had settled down with a wonderfully disguised net shot return which left gong stranded and soon was advancing from 3-5 to 7-5 confidently.

Zhang then made another run of four points from 7-6 to take the game, finishing with a backhand block lifted to such a perfect length that it landed on the baseline with gong hoping that it would go out. The early stages of the second game saw the most competitive phase of the match, with the serve constantly changing hands and gong fighting hard to hang on to her title.

But she did not have the creativity of the older player, and after Zhang won a long rally, full of accurate clearing and disguised drops, completing it with a deft net exchange, to reach 3-3 she got on top.

Gong only served twice more in the match, as Zhang caressed the shuttle to all four corners with increasing fluency, with the champion forced to over-stretch to try to stay in it.

Bureau Report