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Latest Table Tennis newsThe top four highest world ranked players on duty in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Slovenian Open in Velenje all completed their group qualification matches on Wednesday 14th January 2009 with victories.
It was a passport to the main draw for three of the combatants but for a fourth it was all too late.
The experts will tell you that it takes at eight years for a player to graduate from early promise into an athlete of international status.
It is a long grey grind and there are disappointments to be overcome but with the advent in the current century of the ITTF Global Junior Programme and the establishment of the ITTF Junior Circuit, the path is smoother and the opportunities greater than witnessed in the past.
China’s Zhang Yining confirmed her status as the undisputed number
one female player in the world of table tennis by winning the Women’s
Singles title at the Tournament of Champions in Changsha on Sunday 11th
January 2009.
The defending champion, China’s Wang Hao retained his Men’s Singles
title at the Tournament of Champions in Changsha on Sunday 11th January
2009 beating national team colleague, Wang Liqin in a five games final.
Wang Hao succeeded 11-5, 8-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7, having one round earlier defeated Ma Lin in six games.
Supported by Hunan Television, the curtain for the 2008 table tennis year will finally be drawn with the prestigious Tournament of Champions being staged in the southern Chinese city of Changsha.
The comment may seem an anomaly.
China’s Zhang Yining, the reigning Olympic champion, was the player to delight the crowd at the 2008 Killerspin Spinvitational tournament held from Saturday 27th to Monday 29th December; not only did she overcome all female opposition in predictable style, she also handed out the same punishment to her male adversaries.
The 11th ITTF Sports Science Congress, which precedes the 50th World
Table Tennis Championships in Yokohama, Japan will be held from
Saturday 25th to Monday 27th April 2009.
Preparations are now in an advanced state with the deadline for the submission of abstracts being Monday 5th January 2009.
The 2009 Kuwait and Qatar Open will have a new record prize money of US$ 300,000. The winner of the Men’s and Women’s Singles event will receive 30,000 respectively; the runner-ups earn 15,000.
Germany’s "Sportsman of the Year" is the weightlifter Matthias Steiner. Triple European table tennis champion Timo Boll finished second at the ceremony held in Baden-Baden.
The twelve month reign of Ma Lin came to an end on the afternoon of Sunday 14th December 2008. At the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Volkswagen Pro Grand Finals in Macau, the man who had captured the title in Beijing in December 2007 was beaten by Chinese national team compatriot Ma Long.
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