Yang Zi (; born 19 June 1984, in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

) is a Chinese-born

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an former

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player.

Career

Yang joined the Singapore Table Tennis Association under the

Foreign Sports Talent Scheme The Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FST), initially known as Project Rainbow, was a scheme used by sports officials and organisations in Singapore to scout and facilitate the migration of non-Singaporeans deemed to possess sports talent to play in S ...

in 2003 and became a Singapore citizen two years later in 2005. He had represented Singapore in many major events such as 15th

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

, 18th

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and 23rd

SEA Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with su ...

. In 2005, Yang won 2 Pro Tour Men's Singles U21 titles and won the Pro Tour Grand Finals Men's Singles U21 title. He also won the silver medal in the Beijing Invitational. Later he also managed to clinch 3 gold medals in the

2005 Southeast Asian Games The 2005 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held in Manila, Philippines. This was the third time the Philippines hosted the games and its first time since 1991. ...

and 2 golds in the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

. During the world's second largest sports event, 15th

, Yang, together with partner

Li Jiawei Li Jiawei (; born 9 August 1981) is a retired Chinese-born former Singaporean table tennis player, four-time Olympian, and twice Olympic medalist. She trained in Beijing's famous Shichahai Sports School with Olympic medalist Zhang Yining. I ...

, won the bronze medal for the mixed doubles event. Yang and his doubles partner,

Gao Ning Gao Ning (; born 11 October 1982) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player. He is currently appointed as the Singapore Table Tennis National Coach for men. He is considered Singapore's best male player with a world ranking of 3 ...

, has also won many medals in the ITTF Pro Tour Events. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

, Yang made it to the 4th round losing to

Zoran Primorac Zoran Primorac (born 10 May 1969) is a retired Croatian table tennis player. He is a two-time winner of the World Cup and one of only three table tennis players to have competed at seven Olympic Games. His highest ITTF world ranking was number ...

of Croatia by a score of 4–2, however managing to defeat

Marcos Freitas Marcos André Sousa da Silva Freitas (born 8 April 1988) is a Portuguese table tennis player who won European Championships medals in singles, doubles, and team events. He represented Portugal four times at the Summer Olympics. Career Frei ...

(POR) and

Chuang Chih-yuan Chuang Chih-yuan (; born 2 April 1981) is a Taiwanese table tennis player. He won the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in 2002 and doubles title at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. He participated in the Summer Olympics six times, making t ...

(TPE) in the 2nd and 3rd rounds respectively. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, Yang lost to

Paul Drinkhall Paul Andrew Drinkhall (born 16 January 1990) is a British table tennis player. He won the English Championship in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2024. Career Drinkhall was born in Middlesbrough. His career in table tennis started in 19 ...

in the second round, but he fared much better in the team event, where Singapore reached the quarterfinals, where they lost to eventual gold medalists, China. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Yang and Jian Zhan won the bronze medal in the men's doubles, defeating Drinkhall and

Liam Pitchford Liam Benjamin Pitchford (born 12 July 1993) is an English table tennis player. He is sponsored by JOOLA. Career Pitchford began playing table tennis when he was eight years old. He won the British Home Countries Championship in 2009, and two Co ...

of England in the bronze medal match. Yang also won the gold medal in the team event. In 2017, Yang announced his retirement.

Medals

Achievements

*2009 **ITTF Pro Tour German Open ***Men's Doubles – 3rd **ITTF Pro Tour Indian Open ***Men's Singles – 3rd ***Men's Doubles – 1st *2008 **ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals ***Men's Doubles – Gold (with Gao Ning) **Beijing Olympic Games ***Round of 16 **ITTF Pro Tour China Open ***Men's Team – Top 4 (with

, Cai Xiaoli) **ITTF Pro Tour Chile Open ***Men's Doubles – 1st (Gao Ning) *2007 **24th SEA Games ***Men's Team – Gold (with

, Cai Xiaoli) ***Men's Doubles – Gold (with

) ***Mixed Doubles – Gold (

) **ITTF Pro Tour Sweden Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour German Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour French Open ***Men's Doubles – Top 4 (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Austria Open ***Men's Doubles – 1st (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Taipei Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Japan Open ***Men's Doubles – Top 4 (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Korea Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **17th Commonwealth Championships, India, Jaipur ***Men's Team – Gold ***Men's Singles – Silver ***Men's Doubles – Silver (with

) ***Mixed Doubles – Gold (with

Wang Yuegu Wang Yuegu (, ; born 10 June 1980) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player who was ranked among the top ten players in the world. Wang made her inaugural appearance as a Singaporean table tennis player on the International Ta ...

) **ITTF Pro Tour Chille Open ***Men's Singles – Top 4 ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Brazilian Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Indian Open ***Men's Doubles – 1st (with

) **ITTF Pro Tour Taipei Open ***Men's Doubles – 2nd (with

)

References

External links