Guo Fangfang Dreams of Playing With Her Sweetheart

“If it is so outstanding initially, it may be poor at the end. I am only satisfied that I showed my darling Seung-hwan my performance in my new homeland.”

Guo Fangfang (23, Korea Racing Association), the former player from the Hong Kong female ping pong team, performed brightly in her debut on the Korean stage.

It was the final match of women’s group competition between Korea Racing Association and Samsung Card in the 57th Korean Table Tennis Championship held at Kangneung Indoor Gymnasium on December 2. Guo Fangfang, appearing at the first single, gained the lead at 2-0 but was unfortunately defeated 2-3 by Park Mi-young.

Subsequently, she defeated Lee Eun-sil and Moon Hyun-jeong easily by 3-0, pairing up Han Gwang-seon in a double match.

She comforted her saddened colleague players who dropped their heads in grief by tapping on their shoulders after Korea Racing Association lost by a score of 1-3 to finish second. Then she stole a glance at her fiancé, Kim Seung-hwan (Posdata), before she left the gymnasium.

A beautiful ping pong star of China, Guo Fangfang finished her life in Hong Kong and joined the Korea Racing Association last September because of her love for Korean player Kim Seung-hwan. She signed a marriage registration last April, but it will be only possible for her to acquire Korean nationality after two years. Therefore, she has only participated in group competitions and has a record of eight wins and two losses. It is regrettable that she lost despite her lead of 2-0 in the two single matches.

The coach of Korea Racing Association, Hyun Jeong-hwa, commented in an effort to comfort herself, “Guo Fangfang, who is a shake hand shift attacker, is good at quick play but committed many mistakes because she is not used to playing in Korea. However, she will show her capacity as time goes on.”

Guo Fangfang, ranked 63rd in International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), can even participate in solo matches at every competition except for the Korean Sports Festival and Korean Table Tennis Championship starting next year. She can represent Korea after two years when she acquires Korean nationality.

Guo dreams of pairing with her finance, Kim Seung-hwan, to play a doubles match. Her ultimate goal is to advance to the Olympic stage together. They will be married next spring after three years of passionate love.

She is still poor at the Korean language even though she has taken private lessons. She repeatedly answered, “Good” in response to questions of her impression on her debut in Korea.

Meanwhile, the “fantastic duo” Lee Cheol-seung and Ryu Seung-min (Samsung Card) slashed Ryu Chang-jae and Kim Joo-sang (Sang moo) to a 3-0 victory in the final of men’s double. Ryu Seung-min was the first person to win two victories in the competition after winning the mixed doubles yesterday.

Soon-Il Kwon stt77@donga.com