China’s women’s basketball team took the floor at the Uber arena in Berlin on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, and the timing mattered. The team was practicing only hours before a Women’s Basketball World Cup matchup with the United States, a game that puts China’s size back in the spotlight.
Han Xu of China was among the players on court, practicing during the session and posing for photos afterward. For readers searching the name Zhang Ziyu, the headline framing around China’s towering front line is part of what makes this team hard to ignore: opponents will be looking up to China in a tournament where every inch can change the shape of a game.
That height edge is not just a visual trick of the camera. The headline points to a duo listed at 7-foot-3 and 6-10, a size combination that would alter rebounding, passing lanes and shot selection before the ball is even tipped. In a World Cup setting, that kind of front-court length can force a smaller opponent to play from farther out and defend with little margin for error.
But the practice session also left one clear gap. The body of the report identifies Han Xu, yet it does not name the second player in that headline pairing. So the story today is not only that China trained in Berlin before facing the United States. It is also that the roster’s size has become part of the matchup itself, even as one name in that towering duo remains unspoken in the copy.
China will take that attention into the game against the United States, and the question is whether the team’s length translates into control when the pace rises. The size advantage is already there on paper. What matters next is whether China can make it count when the match begins.
