The World Table Tennis Team Championships ended on a high note a week ago. The final matches between China and Singapore in the women's section and China and Germany in men's were exciting and thrilled the spectators in Moscow.

After returning home and sleeping for almost four days to recover from the hectic pace of the World Championships, I started to watch the French Open at Roland Garros on TV and, with no disrespect to China's great table tennis team, some things became very apparent to me.

The French Open had a surprise winner this year in an Italian woman who has been on the professional circuit for 10 years but had never won a major event; until this month at Roland Garros.