RIO DE JANEIRO _ There she was, America's last hope to medal in a sport every single one of us has played, a delightful 20-year-old California girl profiled in the documentary, "Top Spin."
And there I was, the only journalist interviewing her after her table tennis match Monday.
Don't get me wrong; we live for one-on-ones in this business.
But it didn't feel right that Lily Zhang received so little attention. Yes, her match was at 10 a.m. local time, and many of the premier events here stretch well past midnight. Still ...
"I hope I can open a few more eyes for people," Zhang said.
Watching table tennis live is even better than you'd imagine. The warmups alone are mesmerizing, as players exchange crisp forehands _ and then backhands _ using only half the court. Forrest Gump would envy their precision.
With play about to begin Monday, an announcer called out: "OK, everyone, let's make some noise!"
Two sections of fans waved an American flag to salute Zhang, who was the youngest player in the table tennis field at the 2012 London Games. She lost in the first round.
Though she is ranked 101st in the world, she took out the No. 54 player, Portugal's Jieni Shao, to reach the Round of 32. That set up Monday's match against Korea's Hyowon Suh. She is ranked 17th in the world, she's 29 years old, and she's a chopper.
That term will be familiar to those who watched "Top Spin."
Choppers are the annoying (but effective) players who play rope-a-dope by returning bullets with slice returns. They seemingly can do this, without so much as blinking, from breakfast till dinner.
"Basically they just try to win off your mistakes," Zhang said, "which can be frustrating at times. You have to be very, very patient."
And that is not Zhang's strong suit.
She's smart enough to be majoring in psychology and econ at UC-Berkeley, where she will return in two weeks after taking a gap year for Olympic training. She's savvy enough to think 2-3 moves ahead of her opponent, like in chess. She's coordinated enough to smash forehands and backhands at top speed into an area 4.5 feet long by 2.5 feet wide.
But patient?
"She missed a few in the first two games by rushing too much," said her coach, Massimo Costantini. "I told her: 'Be patient, get more knowledge from the ball.' But it's normal to make those mistakes."
Zhang started very slowly, like a groggy teenager. She trailed 8-1 in the first game, eventually falling 11-8. The second game brought the same result and score.
She was spectacular in the third, ripping crosscourt forehands and punctuating one point with a fist pump. But Suh responded in the fourth game and Zhang seemed out of sorts at times in the fifth, mishitting a ball that would have ended up under the basement couch.
The final score: 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-6.
"I'm obviously a little disappointed," she said, "but happy I put everything out there. I tried my absolute best. It's OK."
Costantini was proud. He said it's harder for Zhang because of her lack of experience against choppers. Plus the game's best three women players at the Olympics are 26, 29 and 28. Two are from China, where the sport is revered. And where top players are celebrities.
Zhang isn't there yet. America certainly isn't there, having never won an Olympic medal.
Maybe Zhang will change that. She plans to continue training, aiming for the Tokyo Games in 2020.
Get behind her. She's a great athlete. And as a bonus, unpretentious.
"I don't really care if people call it Ping-Pong," she said with a chuckle. "I think Ping-Pong is a great universal term; everyone knows it. Table tennis is just the more official term."
I told her I thought Ping-Pong was what guys like me played. At the highest level, it is table tennis.
"I don't like to differentiate," she said. "I want everyone to be part of the same sport, to love the same sport."
