Volkswagen Cup - Guangzhou
Guangzhou, 30th March 2010
Top Seeds Secure Titles in Guangzhou China’s 21 year old MA Long and 18 year old LIU Shiwen won the respective Men’s and Women’s Singles titles at the Volkswagen Cup – Guangzhou on Tuesday 30th March 2010 and, in so doing, each left the southern Chinese city US$50,000 richer and the proud owners of Volkswagen Tiguan Saloon cars.
MA Long, currently ranked no.1 on the ITTF Men’s World Ranking list was in devastating form, recording a four straight games semi-final win over Denmark’s Michael MAZE, the reigning European champion, before beating surprise finalist, Korea’s JOO Se Hyuk to clinch the top prize.
JOO Se Hyuk, who one day earlier had caused a major upset by beating Germany’s Timo BOLL, the no.2 seed, continued his good form to overcome Japan’s Jun MIZUTANI, a player against whom had suffered defeat on the ITTF Pro Tour in 2009.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s Singles event, LIU Shiwen, who at the age of eight moved to live in Guangzhou, delighted the 4,000 strong crowd by overcoming Korea’s KIM Kyung Ah in the semi-finals and Singapore’s FENG Tianwei, the no.2 seed, in the final; the latter having ousted Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun at the penultimate stage.
Currently the no.1 ranked female player in the world, LIU Shiwen completed a Guanzhou hat-trick of titles; in 2009 she had won the Volkswagen Women’s World Cup which the city staged, whilst on Sunday 28th March 2010 she had clinched the Women’s Singles title at the Evergrande Real Estate Asian Cup.
Men’s Singles
Semi-Final
MA Long (CHN) bt Michael MAZE (DEN) 11-4, 11-7, 11-3, 11-6
JOO Se Hyuk (KOR) bt Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) 8-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-4, 11-6
Final
MA Long (CHN) bt JOO Se Hyuk (KOR) 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-4
Women’s Singles
Semi-Finals
LIU Shiwen (CHN) bt KIM Kyung Ah (KOR) 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7
FENG Tianwei (SIN) bt JIANG Huajun (HKG) 5-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5
Final
LIU Shiwen (CHN) bt FENG Tianwei (SIN) 7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-6, 11-6
Source: ittf.com
