It could hardly have been closer; that was the situation in the
Men’s Singles qualification group at the Harmony China Open in Suzhou
that involved Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An, Japan’s Koki Niwa and
Korea’s Kim Gang Woong.
On the first day, Chen Chien-An had
beaten Kim Gang Woong but then against the pecking order of the World
Rankings he had lost to the Japanese teenager, who revels in seizing
notable scalps. The outcome of the group depended on the final match
between Koki Niwa and Kim Gang Woong on Thursday 4th June 2009.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, considering the recent exploits of
the Japanese teenager, the Korean latter put the young 14 year old
upstart firmly in his place by recording a hard fought five games
victory.
The only problem was that every match in the group had been resolved in five games!
Final Order
Therefore, points ratio was the determining factor.
Narrowly first place went to Koki Niwa with Chen Chien-An second and Kim Gang Woong, third.
Fortune Smiles
Under
the qualification system, the top two players in each group progress to
the main draw with six places being available for "Lucky Losers" and
the gods of table tennis shone on Kim Gang Woong.
At the
conclusion of the group matches, fate lay in the hands of the lottery,
his name was drawn as one of the six "Lucky Losers"; two days of hard
fought matches for precious places had resulted in all three qualifying.
Justice had been done.
Source: www.ittf.com
