Photo by Thorsten Gohl
Beaten in the final of the Women"s Team event earlier in the week by Zhang Mo; Ariel Hsing extracted revenge on the concluding day of play, Tuesday 27th August 2013, to win the Women抯 Singles title at the ITTF-North American Championships in North Vancouver.
Occupying the top seeded position in the draw, the 17 year American overcame her second seeded Canadian adversary in four straight games (11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10) to lift the title and extract a second revenge.
In 2009 she had reached Women抯 Singles final when the tournament was held in Laval, only to lose to Zhang Mo in the gold medal contest.
Seventh Time
It was the seventh time that Zhang Mo had reached the final.
In 2006 in Rochester, then in the ensuing two years in Laval and Las Vegas she was the runner up; in addition to 2009 in Laval, she was the winner in 2010 in Grand Rapids and in 2011 in Mississauga.
Semi-Finals
At the semi-final stage Ariel Hsing had accounted for colleague Erica Wu, the no.5 seed (11-3, 11-6, 14-12, 11-5); whilst Zhang Mo had defeated Prachi Jha, the no.3 seed and also from the United States (11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5).
Junior Girls?Singles Title
Gold for Ariel Hsing and it was her second gold medal of the day. Earlier in the proceedings she had secured the Junior Girls?Singles title.
The top seed, she accounted for Prachi Jha, the no.2 seed, in the semi-finals (11-6, 11-7, 11-7) and Erica Wu, the no.4 seed, in the final (11-9, 11-6, 11-4). In the counterpart semi-final, Erica Wu, who had beaten Prachi Jha one day earlier in the group stage of proceedings, had ousted Canada抯 Anqi Luo, the no.3 seed (11-9, 11-9, 11-13, 11-7).
