No Cure from World Champion as Austrian Receives Taste of Own
Medicine. At the H.I.S World Championships, on the last day of April,
Austria’s 20 year Stefen Fegerl caused arguably the biggest upset in
the opening round of the Men’s Singles event.
Listed at no.249
on the ITTF Men’s World Rankings at the time, Fegerl beat Romania’s
Adrian Crisan, in April 2009 the no.32 rated player.
The victory was a major reason as to why the Austrian rose to no.201 when the records for May were published.
However, in Suzhou, on Wednesday 3rd June 2009, the talented Fegerl,
who had impressed at the ITTF World Junior Championships in Linz in
2005, received a taste of his own medicine.
Defeat at Hands of Norwegian
In
the group stage of the Men’s Singles event he was beaten by Norway’s
Wang Bing, currently standing at no.365 on the ITTF Men’s World
Rankings.
The previous month in Yokohama, Fegerl attributed his
victory to the fact on the previous evening he had telephoned Werner
Schlager, the 2003 Men’s Singles World champion and the advice given by
Schlager had worked wonders.
Thinker
Certainly,
Schlager is the "Thinker", just watch him between points, he walks
around head bowed as though in a state of deep conjecture, in his own
little world.
Well, did Fegerl telephone Schlager before his match against Wang Bing?
Alternative Answer
Perhaps,
there is another scenario; Schlagers erstwhile Men’s Doubles partner,
with whom he won a host of titles on the ITTF Pro Tour, was Karl
Jindrak.
Karl Jindark is the ITTF Competition Manager at the Harmony China Open in Suzhou.
So did Fegerl speak to Karl Jindrak before the match?
The Blame
I
doubt it Karl Jindrak would be too busy, he’s impartial and he spends
most of his time speaking English so his German’s going down the drain.
For sure, the blame lies with Werner Schlager!
Less Dramatic
The
defeat of Fegerl was one of two surprises on the opening day in the
qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event; the other less
dramatic, was the defeat of Liu Zhong Ze, the seventh high world ranked
player in action, by Korea’s Cho Eon Rae.
However, the surprise
was really one resigned to statistics; Cho Eon Rae has vast
international experience being the runner up in the Boys’ Singles event
at the first two ITTF World Junior Championships - Chile in 2003 and
Japan one year later.
Certainly, the result was not that great an upset.
Leading Names Succeed
Meanwhile, for the highest ranked there were no first day problems.
Singapore’s
Ma Liang, England’s Paul Drinkhall, Austria’s Daniel Habesohn, Chinese
Taipei’s Huang Sheng-Sheng plus Korea’s Joo Ji Hoon and Jeong Sang Eun,
all came through successfully.
Close Call
The
one of the top six to encounter problems was Joo Ji Hoon. He beat
Chinese Taipei’s Hung Tze-Sheng in six games; the sixth game, he won
23-21!
Memories of yesteryear.
Source: www.ittf.com
