United States’ Kiki Iriafen bins out China’s Zhang Ziyu through the Fiba Girls’s Basketball World Cup match between China and the USA in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (AP Photograph/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Chinese language teenage basketball participant Zhang Ziyu stands 7-foot-4 and towers over opponents on the Girls’s World Cup — however off the court docket she’s “just a bit lady.”
That was the evaluation of the large 19-year-old by teammate Han Xu after China’s 74-70 time beyond regulation win over the Czech Republic on Sunday in Germany.
The teenage centre scored three factors in simply over 10 minutes on court docket in opposition to a bodily Czech aspect, having been extra of a risk in opposition to reigning champions the USA in a 94-61 loss to begin the match.
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After that defeat, USA celebrity Caitlin Clark had heat phrases for Zhang, saying: “I’ve by no means performed in opposition to a girl of that measurement and she or he clearly introduced some challenges for us.
“I feel she’s an exquisite participant and also you see how younger she is.
“You’ll be able to inform she’s nonetheless rising and studying learn how to play and learn how to leverage her benefit, which is her measurement.
“There’s not a lot you are able to do to cease her when she will get it actually near the basket.”
Zhang’s peak is listed at 223cm on the web site of world governing physique Fiba, making her already taller than NBA nice Shaquille O’Neal, and even in a sport the place peak issues, she stands out in ladies’s basketball.
READ: China’s Li Yueru out of Fiba Girls’s World Cup after dropping passport
Zhang may be destined for the WNBA, however Clark and Han warned in opposition to putting too many expectations on {the teenager}.
“In life she’s just a bit lady,” mentioned Han, who top-scored for China with 22 factors in opposition to the Czechs.
“I all the time wish to give her good vitality… she will be able to end to the rim and defend the paint.
“I feel she is a superb participant and we simply hold pondering (about) learn how to use her higher and hope she might be extra aggressive.”
The official web site for the Girls’s Basketball World Cup describes Zhang as “epically tall”, noting she first got here to worldwide prominence when she was topped MVP on the U18 Girls’s Asia Cup two years in the past.
Footage and pictures of Zhang looming over her opponents have gone viral on-line, however Clark mentioned there was extra to her than simply that.
“She’s nonetheless a really younger participant, however to be this younger and to be in a World Cup and to go up in opposition to the highest gamers is barely going to assist her proceed to develop,” mentioned Clark.
“So I feel if she continues to develop, then there’s positively a spot for her.”
