Four players from China on duty in the Men’s Singles event and all
new to the international scene was a source of attraction on the
opening day of play, Thursday 19th March 2009, at the German Open in
Bremen.
Can one of them emulate the efforts of Ding Song in the
early 1990s in Sweden and progress through the qualification stages to
win the Men’s Singles at an open international tournament?
However, in 2009, the open international tournament scene is more buoyant than ever, thanks to the advent of the ITTF Pro Tour.
Therefore, the chances of a player in their first ever such
tournament progressing from qualification to gold is not that likely.
Even for the mighty China, in a men’s event it is a daunting challenge.
Caught the Eye
However, amongst the four new faces in action, Yin Hang and Chen Jinqi did catch the eye.
Both remained unbeaten after their first two visits to the table; however, both were tested.
Tough Matches
Yin
Hang accounted for Japan’s Hidetoshi Oya and Chinese Taipei’s Huang
Sheng-Sheng, both in close seven games duels whilst Chen Jingqi was
extended to seven games by Germany’s Steffen Mengel before recording a
straight games victory over Croatia’s Andrei Gacina.
"Against
Mengel I was three-one in the lead but I completely lost my head after
the fourth game," explained Cheng Jingqi. "Fortunately, I came back in
the seventh game."
However, for Zhang Peifeng and Liu Yanan it was a different scenario.
Problems
Zhang
Peifeng was beaten in four straight games by the Czech Republic’s Tomas
Konecny but recovered to overcome Singapore’s Ma Liang whilst for Liu
Yanan it was two defeats.
He was beaten by Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi and the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik; both defeats were in six games.
Source: www.ittf.com
