If there was ever a match for American Lily Zhang to rewrite her history against Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem, it had to be this one. A match with the second round of a WTT Champions event on the line. A match where she nearly found herself at a 2-0 deficit. A match she entered with 10 straight losses against this particular opponent.
A match she won in their 11th game against one another.
Zhang defeated Doo in the first round of the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025 women’s singles tournament, by a score of 3-2 (11-13, 13-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6). This match was Zhang’s first-ever victory against Doo, who had beaten the American in all 10 of their prior matchups.
“I didn’t know that it was head-to-head, 10-0,” Zhang told reporters after the match. I think I must have blocked out some [matches] from my memory, [they were] too traumatic. So I’m really, really happy for the win.”
Doo struck first with a 13-11 victory in their first game, and she forced a game point in their second game, at 10-7. But Zhang refused to let her opponent close this game out, answering with four straight points to give herself the better score of an 11-10 game point.
After a few more back-and-forth rallies, Zhang prevailed with an 11-13 victory to tie their match at 1-1.
“It was hard to come out of that mental rut a little bit, but in the second game I had a couple of good shots and that gave me a lot of confidence to keep going,” Zhang told reporters after the match. “Being able to come back in that second game and win that one kept propelling me to keep going for the rest of the match.”
This game shifted the momentum to Zhang ahead of her third game against Doo, which she won 11-8. After Doo won their next game 11-5 to force a winner-take-all fifth game, Zhang secured a match victory with a score of 11-6.
Zhang ranks at No. 38 across female singles players in the world, which is the highest an American woman currently ranks in the event. Doo sits just one spot behind Zhang at No. 39, but she has ranked as high as No. 7 (Week #30, 2022).
Zhang will advance to the Round of 16 and face the winner of Australia’s Minhyung Jee and the 8th-seeded Satsuki Odo from Japan.
