Wang Nan Earns Comparison with Deng Yaping

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, May 25, 2003

Wang Nan Earns Comparison with Deng Yaping

After completing a three-peat of world championships women's singles titles, Chinese Wang Nan is earning comparison with her compatriot and retired table tennis legend Deng Yaping.

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Wang Nan Makes it Three in a Row

After completing a three-peat of world championships women's singles titles, Chinese Wang Nan is earning comparison with her compatriot and retired table tennis legend Deng Yaping.

But the 25-year-old, who beat compatriot Zhang Yining on Saturday for her third straight world title, appeared to intentionally distance herself from such a comparison.

Deng had nine world titles and four Olympic gold medals under her name.

"We played in different times," Wang said. "She (Deng) is a player whom I have great respect and I have learned a lot from," Wang added.

Both had been teammates but Wang had lived in the shadow of Deng for as long as the former table tennis great was active in the sport.

Wang reached the final of the 1997 world championships in Manchester, only to finish runner-up to Deng.

Wang did not win her first world title until the 1999 world championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, when Deng had virtually retired from the sport and gone to study at university.

Wang's coach Qiao Hong, who paired with Deng to win both world and Olympic doubles titles, said that there is no point in comparing the two leading players at different times. "I don't favor such comparison, there is no point of doing that," she said.

"Their playing careers belong to different times, they also have different career targets and personalities," she said.

The most striking difference between them lies in the personality, as Deng was more extrovert and played more aggressively.

But Wang seems to have wished to reach the same height as Deng in terms of sporting accomplishments.

Deng captured a total of four golds from two straight Olympic Games, two more ahead of Wang's current gold haul.

"I wish I could win gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, so that I will have the same number of Olympic titles as Deng Yaping," Wang said.

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