I'm happy despite my loss to Zhang: New Zealand paddler

The eldest female paddler in the table tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, who had raised a challenge to China's world No.1 Zhang Yining, said Tuesday that she still "felt happy" despite finally losing the match.

Li Chunli, 42, suffered a straight 4-0 defeat to Zhang in their encounter in women's singles round 3 Tuesday afternoon. Li attracted media attention as she claimed Tuesday that she would beat Zhang in the match.

"Actually it was quite normal for me to lose, as Zhang is really the best player in the world today," said Li. "I challenged her simply because I wanted to set a goal for myself and encourage myself to play better."

"To tell you the truth, I always felt nervous in the past while meeting Chinese players in major tournaments. So this time I told myself: you must face up to them and try your best to beat them," said Li, who had a table tennis career of nearly 30 years and had also served in China's national team for two years before immigrating to New Zealand.

But Li said that she still "felt quite happy" for having played a "quite close match with the powerful Zhang".

"I did have some chance to win in the opening games, especially in the second. Only when I was 0-3 down did I think that there was no hope to win,"she noted. Li lost both games 8-11 and 10-12.

China's Zhang, one of the two biggest singles gold favorites in this tournament along with Sydney double champion Wang Nan, acknowledged after the match that Li had caused some trouble for her in the first two games.

"I was somewhat taken by surprise by the force of attack from Li. You know, for a player of her age, it is quite amazing that she could still hit the ball with that kind of strength and speed," said Zhang.

But she said that she and her coach had made full preparations for the match with Li, though she had never read the report about Li's bold challenge to her.

"I know that Li once gave my teammate Li Ju (singles world ranking No.9) a big headache as she came back from three games down to a 3-3 draw, though my teammate finally won the hard match 4-3," said Zhang.

Zhang, who is now in the last 16 of singles and also in doubles quarterfinals along with partner Wang Nan, said that she also played better Tuesday than in her doubles match Monday evening.

"Yesterday's doubles match was my first in the tournament and I felt quite nervous," said Zhang, a first-time Olympian. "But today I was much more relaxed and therefore could play better."

Talking to the press, Li, now ranked 44th in the world, also called on the rest of the world to pay more attention to the popularization of table tennis, so as to catch up with traditional powerhouses like China.

"In China, table tennis enjoys the support of both the government and the people. But in New Zealand, I don't even have a coach and have to train all by myself," said Li with a bitter smile.