Poland’s Wang Zeng Yi and Germany’s Patrick Baum were the players to cause the shocks in the quarter-finals of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke Austrian Open in Linz on Saturday 1st November 2008.
Wang Zeng Yi, seeded no.21 and ranked at no.81 on the current ITTF Men’s World Ranking list beat Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the no.3 seed and at the moment enjoying his highest ever World Ranking of no.13; whilst Patrick Baum redressed the balance for Germany by saddening the home town fans.
Not seeded and ranked at no.126 on the ITTF Men’s World Rankings, he defeated Austria’s Werner Schlager, the no.4 seed and currently standing at no.17 on the rankings.
Score Line
Patrick Baum succeeded by the narrowest of margins winning 7-11, 11-8, 11-2, 11-8, 8-11, 1-11, 13-11 whilst Wang Zeng Yi succeeded in an equally close contest. He won 14-12, 11-13, 12-10, 6-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9.
Against the Odds
Both results were against the odds; it was the first time in a World Ranking event that Dimitrij Ovtharov and Wang Zeng Yi had met whilst for Werner Schlager and Patrick Baum it was their third encounter, both previous duels having gone the way of the Austrian.
Furthermore, in the two duels, Patrick Baum had only ever secured one game against the 2003 World Champion.
In September 2006 at the Panasonic China Open he was beaten in five games by Schlager whilst in October 2008 in the European Champions League he suffered in straight games.
German Mixed Fortunes
Success and defeat for Germany and in the other two quarter-final matches it was exactly the same situation.
Top seed Timo Boll beat Croatia’s Zoran Primorac whilst Bastian Steger was beaten by second seed, Chuan Chih-Yuan.
History Repeated
It was the ninth meeting between Timo Boll and Zoran Primorac in a World Ranking event and it was the eighth time that the German had won. The only success for the Croatian was earlier in the year in February when he won in the opening stage of matches at the Europe Top 12.
Meanwhile for Bastian Steger it was history repeating itself.
Succeeded Again
The pair had met on two previous occasions and on both occasions the man from Chinese Taipei had won.
He succeeded in April 2003 in the European Champions League and in February 2006 in the second round of the Men’s Singles event at the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open.
In Salzburg he succeeded again.
Source: www.ittf.com
