Beaten Tie blames exhaustion

Tie Yana crashed back to earth after her Asian Games heroics last week when she was sent packing in the first round of the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals at Queen Elizabeth Stadium yesterday.

Tie looked out of sorts as she made one of her quickest exits from a ranking tournament and she blamed competition exhaustion for her 4-3 loss to unheralded Tan Monfardini Wenling of Italy, which made her the first big casualty of the US$290,000 tournament.

Hong Kong's best hope in women's singles is ranked sixth in the world and on paper looked to have had a great chance of finally shining before her local fans. Spectators certainly would not have expected Tan, with a world ranking of 32 and no major titles to her name, to emerge victorious.

Just last week, Tie was celebrating one of her best competition outings after winning silver medals in singles and doubles in Doha, with a shock singles semi-final defeat of China's former Olympic and world champion, Wang Nan, among her victories.

But her heroics in Doha must have seemed a million miles away as she fell to a player who is 34 years old, switched nationality a couple of years ago and stands just 1.48 metres tall.

'I just couldn't get into the match and I was feeling really tired. I am still in shock that I lost,' said the 27-year-old Tie. 'I didn't expect her to put up such a fight. Mentally, I wasn't there.'

Tie added: 'I have had a long competition schedule in Doha and I have only just arrived back in Hong Kong. I was nervous and I missed a lot of opportunities to win the match.