Familiarity breeds contempt, so they say; it would also seem that familiarity breeds upsets.
Certainly
that was the situation in the Men’s Singles event at the Indian Open in
Indore on Sunday 15th March 2009 where all four semi-finalists were
from Singapore.
Both penultimate stage matches witnessed victory for the lower seeded player.
Semi-Finals
At the
semi-final stage Ma Liang, seeded no.4, defeated Yang Zi, seeded no.2,
11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 5-11, 14-12, 5-11, 11-7 whilst Cao Xiao Li, seeded
no.5, ousted Gao Ning, seeded no.1, 5-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-13,
11-8, 12-10.
Final
Two
hard fought semi-finals and the final was even closer; gold went to Ma
Liang; he won 13-15, 11-6, 14-12, 11-4, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9 to emulate the
efforts of compatriot Yu Meng Yu in the Women’s Singles final and win
his first ever Men’s Singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour.
One of Youngest Ever Winners
Furthermore,
he is one of the youngest ever winners; he is only 17 years old and
currently stands at no.2 on the ITTF Under 18 Men’s Ranking list, one
place below Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira.
It was for Ma Liang by a considerable margin his best ever performance on the ITTF Pro Tour.
He
has enjoyed success in Under 21 Men’s Singles events but in the senior
category, negotiating the qualification stage has proved a stumbling
block time and again; his previous best was a quarter-final place in
the Men’s Singles event in India in 2007.
Notable Birthday Looms
The
final was one of youth versus experience with Ma Liang providing the
teenage energy and Cai Xiao Li the wisdom of experience; he will
celebrate his thirtieth birthday in November 2009.
An
experienced campaigner, Cai Xiao Li made his debut for Singapore in the
previous century and has been a regular member of the national team
since 1997 when he was on duty in the English city of Manchester.
In many ways, he has been Mr Reliability, never reaching the greatest heights but being a safe and secure team member.
Career Best
The
performance in Indore was his career best on the ITTF Pro Tour, the
previous best being a quarter-final slot at the Indian Open in 2007.
At
the Indian Open he went two steps higher but climbing the third rung of
the ladder proved to be one escalation too high; Ma Liang ended
progress, the teenager was the champion.
Source: www.ittf.com
