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Good Luck Beijing Tournament

Unblemished Record

China finished the opening day of play, Tuesday 18th December 2007, at the Good Luck Beijing Tournament in the splendid surroundings of the Peking University with an unblemished record.

The Men’s Team of Chen Qi, Hao Shuai and Ma Long recorded a three matches to nil victory against Hong Kong China’s Ko Lai Chak, Li Ching and Tang Peng in the last session of play, whilst earlier in proceedings the Women’s Team had emerged victorious in both their contests.

In their opening duel, the trio of Guo Yan, Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia overcame the European team of Croatia’s Tamara Boros plus the German duo of Wu Jiaduo and Zhenqi Barthel by the margin of three matches to nil, before inflicting the same pain on Hong Kong China represented by Lin Ling, Tie Yana and Zhang Rui.

The only players to pose threats to the host nation’s stars were the Hong Kong China pair of Tie Yana and Tang Peng. In the Women’s Team event Tie Yana extended Guo Yue the full distance, whilst in the counterpart male competition Tang Peng lost by the very narrowest of five game margins to Hao Shuai.

Otherwise it was a trouble free day.

Hong Kong China finished with one win and one defeat on the first day of play overcoming the Singapore team of Feng Tianwei, Sun Bei Bei and Yu Meng Yu in the opening duel of proceedings by three matches to one; the one success for Singapore came in the first match of the fixture with Feng Tianwei defeating Lin Ling.

A satisfactory day for Hong Kong China but for Europe it was disappointment with Zhenqi Barthel the one ray of light; in the three-one defeat at the hands Singapore she overcame Sun Bei Bei in straight games. It was the biggest surprise of the day. Zhenqi Barthel is currently ranked no. 104 on the ITTF Women’s World Ranking lists whilst Sun Bei Bei stands at no. 14.

Two defeats for the European Women’s Team and it was also disappointment for their male colleagues.

The trio of Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia, Andrej Gacina and Vladimir Samsonov lost by the margin of three matches to nil against the Koreans Cho Eon Rae, Lee Jin Kwon and Lee Jung Woo; the knife in the heart of European hopes being the victory of Lee Jin Kwon over Vladimir Samsonov after the European star had established a two games to nil lead.