Swedish Open: Wang Hao Extracts Revenge
November 19, 2007

Wang Hao (CHN) Photo Courtesy of ITTF

Courtesy of ITTF On Saturday November 10, 2007 at the Liebherr German Open, Wang Hao had departed proceedings in the Men’s Singles event on the penultimate day. He lost at the quarter-final stage in six games to the player who proceeded to win the title. He was beaten by colleague Ma Long. Eight days later in Stockholm at the Swedish Open on Sunday November 18, 2007, Wang Hao extracted revenge; in the final of the Men’s Singles event he beat the powerful nineteen year old in five games.

Wang Hao recovered from a first game reverse to win 2-11, 11-9, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8.

Fourth Win in 2007
It was Wang Hao’s sixth appearance in a Men’s Singles final on the ITTF Pro Tour in 2007 and it was the fourth time that he had won.

Earlier in the year he succeeded at the Croatian Open, the Volkswagen Open Japan and the Panasonic China Open while at the Volkswagen Open China and the Liebherr French Open he was the runner up.

Authority
In the final in Stockholm he re-asserted his authority over Ma Long. The two have now met on ten occasions in World ranking events and Wang Hao has prevailed on eight of those meetings.

He won their first four encounters. In February 2005 he was successful in the second round of the Men’s Singles event at the Qatar Open and later in the year he beat Ma Long at the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Volkswagen Open China in September.

The following year, 2006, they met on one occasion with Wang Hao emerging the winner at the quarter-final stage in Velenje at the Liebherr Slovenian Open.

Current Year
Three meetings in two years, the rest have all taken place in the same year, the current year.

At the Gorenje Slovenian Open in January Wang Hao won when the two met in round three to make it four wins out of four but when they clashed at the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open it was a different story. Ma Long won their third round duel on his way to winning his first ever Men’s Singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour.

It was for Ma Long a watershed in the year.

Three Wins
However, on the next three encounters it was Wang Hao who was the winner on each occasion.

He emerged successful in the final of the Men’s Singles event at the Volkswagen Open Japan in June and at the ensuing Volkswagen China tournament he won again, this time in the semi-finals.

Two consecutive wins he made it three. In September he overcame Ma Long in the final of the Men’s Singles event at the China Mobile Asian Championships in Yangzhou.

Arrears Reduced
In Bremen, Ma Long reduced the career match arrears with a quarter-final victory but in Stockholm, Wang Hao resumed normal service. He won and he was the 2007 Swedish Open Men’s Singles champion.

Names
Just one thought; at the semi-final stage of both the Men’s and Women’s Singles events, when translated into English, the semi-finalists who faced each other had the same family name.

In the Men’s Singles Ma played Ma (Ma Lin versus Ma Long) while Wang confronted Wang (Wang Hao and Wang Liqin); meanwhile at the penultimate stage of the Women’s Singles event Guo faced Guo (Guo Yue versus Guo Yan) and Li played Li (Li Xiaoxia against Li Jia Wei).

Surely that is a first for the ITTF Pro Tour and a unique way to end the open international tournament program on the ITTF Pro Tour for 2007.