57-year-old Chinese-Chilean table tennis player wins over crowd at Pan American Games

Chile’s Zhiying Zeng serves the ball during a table tennis women’s singles round of sixteen match against Lily Ann Zhang of the United States at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)Chile’s Zhiying Zeng returns the ball during a table tennis women’s singles round of sixteen match against Lily Ann Zhang of the United States at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.

Zeng became famous overnight in the Andean nation after she beat Dominican Eva Peña Brito by 4 sets to 2 in her first match in the women’s singles tournament. She lost the first two sets, but she managed to turn the match around in front of raucous fans screaming for her.

“Tremendous!,” Boric wrote on his social media channels after the Chinese-Chilean’s victory on Monday. Playing table tennis as a professional only crossed her mind during the COVID pandemic. She quickly made it to Chile’s national team and now hopes to be part of it for the Paris Olympics next year. Zeng is currently among the 150 best women tennis table players in the world. headtopics.com

“I came here because the table tennis association of Arica, in the north, invited me. Then I moved to Iquique, and made my life there. I am Chilean, no doubt,” said Zeng in a fluent Spanish she learned in soap operas. She now she prefers to watch Turkish TV series when at home.

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