Sara recently came to the US through arrangements made by Palo Alto Head Coach Dennis Davis to have her practice with the promising players at Palo Alto.  She was born in Chengdu which is a city in the Sichuan Province in China.  Her father was very interested in table-tennis and Sara asked him to teach her at the age of seven.  She came from China and fighting jet lag, played the North American Team tournament in Baltimore during the 2005 Thanksgiving weekend.  She also went to Las Vegas during the US Nationals and called Las Vegas "fun and beautiful."  She assisted the Palo Alto juniors with coaching during the Nationals and feels that some of them will win a world-class medal for the US.  There's a good chance she could be referring to Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang, and Natalie Sun who are 3 top girls for in the US for girls 11 and under.  She was also able to visit Disneyland.  Despite these enjoyable visits to places in the US, she considers the highlight of her trip to be the new friends she made here. 

   But despite the positives, she misses her family and her dog "Laifu."  She has been a government employee playing for the Chengdu city team and Sichuan provincial team.  Sara has been the Sichuan Provincial women's singles champion and got fifth place in the Chinese National Southern Region tournament.  Her favorite player is Japanese phenom Ai Fukuhara who is one of the biggest celebrities in Japan.  Ai nearly defeated former World Champion Hei Zhi Li and when Hei asked what she thought of Ai, she said "there are a thousand kids like her in China."  That says something about the popularity and strength of table-tennis in China.  Sara was also surprised how many Chinese people there are in America and she sometimes wonders if she is in China or the US!

   Sara enjoys competing with the best players in the US and is happy to have made new friends in this area.  She also hopes to attend a university in the US and calls her biggest accomplishment being a nice and responsible person.  In competition, Sara has defeated Barney Reed, Freddie Gabriel, Shashin Shodhan, Jackie Lee, and Auria Malek with all wins being 3-2 in games.  I guess that means she is good in the clutch!