Germany’s Patrick Baum caused the upset of the Men’s Singles
semi-finals at the Japan Open in Wakayama on Sunday 14th June 2009 by
beating Austria’s Werner Schlager, the no.4 seed, in five games.
In
the battle between the 2003 World champion and 2005 World Junior
champion, the latter prevailed 12-10, 12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8.
The
victory recorded by Baum was his second in four meetings in world
ranking events against Schlager and it gave him the distinction of
being the second player in 2009 to proceed through the qualification
stages and reach an ITTF Pro Tour Men’s Singles final.
Slovenia
At the
Slovenian Open in January, China’s Zhang Chao commenced his journey on
day one, finishing on the concluding day of action with the Men’s
Singles silver medal; at the final hurdle he was beaten by colleague
Hao Shuai.
Previous Meetings
Previous
meetings between Baum and Schlager had seen the latter succeed in
September 2006 in the first round of the Men’s Singles event at the
Panasonic China Open and in October 2008 in the European Champions
League.
However, in the most recent encounter prior to the duel
in Wakayama, Baum had prevailed in a close seven games struggle; he won
at the quarter-final stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke
Austrian Open.
One Better
The
win in Austria meant that for the first time in his career the German
had reached a Men’s Singles semi-final on the ITTF Pro Tour; in
Wakayama he went one better and evened the score with Schlager.
Dominant
Meanwhile,
in the counterpart semi-final, Korea’s Oh Sang Eun, seeded no.3,
dominated matters from start to finish against the host nation’s Kaii
Yoshida, the no. 8 seed.
In the previous round against Oh Sang
Eun’s colleague, Joo Se Hyuk, the all action Japanese star had
overpowered the defensive skills of the Korea backspin player. Against
Oh Sang Eun, he received a taste of his own medicine; the counter
attacking skills and control exercised by the tall Korean proved too
much for Yoshida.
Oh Sang Eun dominated from start to finish; he
won 11-3, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 and in so doing maintained his ascendancy
over the enthusiastic Japanese star.
History
The
pair had met on two previous occasions in world ranking events; in
April 2004 they confronted each other at the Liebherr World Team
Championships and one year later in June 2007 at the Volkswagen Open
Korea.
On both occasions Oh Sang Eun won in straight games; in Wakayama he repeated the performance.
Source: www.ittf.com
