Qatar Open: Chinese Stars Occupy Top Seeded Positions
March 18, 2008

Guo Yue (CHN) Photo By: Ayoade Ademakinwa

Courtesy of ITTF Chinese players occupy the top four positions on the current ITTF Men’s and Women’s World Ranking lists and thus their names appear in the top four seeded positions in the Men’s and Women’s Singles events at the Erke Qatar Open, which commenced in Doha today Tuesday, March 18, 2008 concluding with the finals on Saturday March 22, 2008. Wang Hao is the top seed in the Men’s Singles event followed by Ma Lin, Wang Liqin and Ma Long, while in the counterpart female competition the order of merit is Zhang Yining, Li Xiaoxia, Guo Yue and Wang Nan.

At the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open, which finished on Sunday March 16, 2008, the Chinese women ruled supreme but their were problems for the men, the top four all stumbled with Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus emerging as the Men’s Singles champion. In Doha, they have a point prove and if one member of the Chinese camp has a point to prove it is Wang Liqin.

He is the most successful male player in the history of the ITTF Pro Tour; he has won a total of twenty-three Men’s Singles titles but has not emerged victorious since September 2006 when he was crowned champion at the Volkswagen Open Japan. It has been a barren spell of eighteen months for the man who is also the most successful male player ever at the Qatar Open. He won the Men’s Singles title in 2005 and 2006 while in 2007 he was the runner up to Ma Lin.

Wang Liqin plus those players who have direct entries to the main draw have two days to prepare for the singles competition; the highest thirty-two World ranked men and sixteen women are not required to play on the first two days of competition which is devoted to the qualification group stage.

The highest World ranked male players on view on the first day of competition are Kim Jung Hoon and Yoon Jae Young of Korea and both gave ample evidence in the recently completed Salwa Cup Kuwait Open that they can compete with the very best.

Kim Joon Hoon beat Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, ranked sixteen in the World, before losing to Vladimir Samsonov but not before he had caused the champion elect a host of problems; he won the first two games before the fluent style of the three times European champion assumed control.

Similarly, Yoon Jae Young showed his pedigree in Kuwait; he reached his first ever Men’s Singles semi-final on the ITTF Pro Tour losing to China’s Chen Qi by the very narrowest of seven game margins, beating both colleague Ryu Seung Min, the reigning Olympic champion and Denmark’s Michael Maze, a bronze medalists in the 2005 Volkswagen 48th World Championships, en route.

Similarly, there are star names on duty in the qualification stage of the Women’s Singles event in Qatar; notably Croatia’s Tamara Boros and Wang Chen of the United States; both have won Women’s Singles crowns on the ITTF Pro Tour and will be seeking to revive former glories.

Play started at 10.00am on Tuesday March 18, 2008 in the splendid environment of the Qatar Sports Club.

 

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