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Good Luck Beijing Tournament

Stars Rested for Good Luck

China’s three leading male players, the top three ranked men in the world – Wang Hao, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin – have been rested by Men’s National Coach, Liu Guoliang, for the Good Luck Beijing Tournament which commences on Tuesday 18th December 2007 and concludes the following day.

Similarly, in the counterpart female event, Zhang Yining and Wang Nan, the two most recent Women’s Singles Olympic champions are not on duty.

Nevertheless, despite these absentees, the Chinese teams on duty start as favourites to stand on the top step of the medal podium when matters conclude on Wednesday 19th December 2007.

Guo Yue, the reigning Women’s Singles World champion, heads the female team. She lines up alongside Li Xiaoxia and Guo Yan, whilst for the men it is Ma Long, Chen Qi and Hao Shuai who are on duty.

There are four teams in each of the two events with matches being played on the same principle as will be used at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Three players form a team;p a fixture consists of five singles matches and one doubles, the doubles being the third contest in the order of play. No player is allowed to compete in more than two matches in a fixture so astute captaincy could well prove vital.

In the Women’s Team event China starts the programme at 10.00am on Tuesday 18th December 2007 with a contest against Europe for whom Croatia’s Tamara Boros plus Germany’s Wu Jiaduo and Zhenqi Barthel are on duty, whilst on the adjacent table Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Sun Bei Bei of Singapore will face Hong Kong China’s Lin Ling, Tie Yana and Zhang Rui.

Ladies first and then in the afternoon session of play at 14.30 the two genders share the stage. In the Men’s Team event the European trio of Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus plus Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia and Croatia’s Andrej Gacina face the Koreans, Lee Jung Woo, Cho Eon Rae and Lee Jin Kwon; whilst for the women China and Hong Kong China return to the fray.

Similarly in the final session of play at 19.00 it is one table for the men and one for the women.

In the Men’s event China confronts the Hong Kong China team of Ko Lai Chak, Li Ching and Tang Peng whilst Singapore plays Europe.

Matches in the Women’s Team competition are played on a group basis with all four teams playing each other, whilst in the Men’s Team event it is semi-finals followed by a final and a play off match for third and fourth places.