16-Year-Old American Table Tennis Player Ariel Hsing Almost Upset The World #2

She ended up losing to China’s Li Xiaoxia 4-2, but she showed tremendous poise doing it.

This is Ariel Hsing. She’s a 16-year-old from the Bay Area who won her first two matches of the Olympics.

Image by SAEED KHAN / Getty Images

In the third-round, she ran up against Li Xiaoxia, the second-seeded player in the tournament. Nobody gave Hsing much of a chance of winning, including Hsing.

“It is a little bit daunting but she is probably more nervous than I am,” Hsing told Reuters. “She has to play against a 16-year-old girl in her first round. That must be a little bit strange for her.

“I won’t be destroyed if I lose to the world number two. I think this has been a huge part of my table tennis career and a wonderful experience. I don’t think I will ever be nervous for another tournament again.”

But she took Xiaoxia into the sixth set on the strength of shots like this.

Hsing was almost able to take it to a seventh and final set, but the 24-year-old Xiaoxia put her away on this fantastic rally.

Video available at: http://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2012/07/29/arielhsing-624x336.mp4.

Via: Kevin Lincoln