After having seen Xie wipe the floor with Camilla in Copenhagen Masters, Xie Xin Fang would certainly be a candidate. She did play extremely well in that match, but she doesn't seem to have the psychological stability yet... she has a tendency to "let go" of matches. That's what happened against Camilla the first time they met, and it almost happened against Tine Rasmussen in the Masters. If I was the Chinese coach, I'd be VERY wary about sending somebody who managed to lose a game to Tine Rasmussen! (Tine is not a bad player, but she is clearly a class below these girls.) Ergo, Zhang Ning.
I seem to get the impression Zhang ning often has injury problems too....that's the main reason she has been in the chinese team for 13 years but has only started really shining in the last few years...just after winning the WC she got injured again during the indonesian open too but she recovered quickly I think overall she is the best bet for China's WS gold...she can consistently beat Gong RN, Zhou Mi, Camilla and Mia Audina. However, i noticed that lately Xie is the only one who can consistently beat Zhang--their head to head record was 4-0 in favor of zhang a few months ago but by my count it is 4-4 now...xie has won her in the malaysian open, china open, the Chinese National Championships finals, and something else too...seems to have escaped me when though... and does anyone know why zhou mi has experience a dip in form since winning the all england this year...and she only won the China Open cuz gong rn retired in the finals from injury.
Perhaps she had been playing against the same opponents for far too much (Gong RN and Zhang Ning). Lack of variety brings about stagnation. But then again, the pool of women players of the same class aren't exactly as big as the guys, no? Still, that don't seem to affect Zhang Ning and Gong RN, does it?
