CNG Throwback: The End Of The Penhold Heyday

How often do we see a female penholder playing in the semifinals or later rounds in the women's singles? Penholders used to have prestigious achievements in the past. However the shakehanders are the majority of the table tennis world in nowadays. We seldom find penholders in the women's field (Shan Xiaona, Ni Xialian and Zhang Qiang to name a few) not to mention in the later rounds of the competition. CNG throwback is going to cover the bronzer medal match of the women's singles at 2005 Chinese National Games. A match between penholder and shakehander.

Photo: 中体在线

Back in the 1965 Chinese National Games. Regulations made it compulsory to have at least one shakehander on the team. It's now the other way round. As stated in the regulations, each women's team must has at least 1 penholder while 1 penholder or chopper for the men's team. The intention of the regulations are to conserve the variety of the playing style in the table tennis world but we know most penholders especially the female players are benchwarmers and are not likely to show up in the team event. Here is a rare penholder Vs shakehander from 2005 Chinese National Games.

The women's singles event at the 2005 Chinese National Games should be listed on the top of the re-watch list. There are several well worth watching matches including the finals where Zhang Yining played against Wang Nan, the semifinals where Zhang Yining played against Guo Yue and this bronze medal match where Guo Yue played against Li Nan who is now wife of Shi Zhihao, the former chief-coach of the women's team. (You may find those matches in the playlist below!)

Li Nan the left-handed penholder played a wide range of soft drops and changed the pace of the competition with her sudden forehand pivot. This gave the left-handed shakehander, Guo Yue a very hard time despite her quick and powerful counter-loop technique. The 7-game bronze medal match is a rare one of a kind and let's enjoy the match.

There are 2 female penholders competing in the women's singles, they are Shang Yuanyian representing Anhui province and Zhang Qiang (Jiangsu) who had showed up in Australia Open in July this year. Let's see how far will the penholders make this year. If you want to know who are the other contenders of women's singles at the 13th Chinese National Games, follow our women's singles preview coming up soon!


Although I make frequent updates so that I can include more CNG throwbacks before the Games starts, there are always more amazing matches than that I can include. No worries, I have created a playlist to include most of matches from the past Chinese National Games. If I have missed any matches, please remind me in the comment box, I will add them back to the playlist!