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Volkswagen Open China

Korean Casualty

Korea’s Oh Sang Eun was the major casualty at the Volkswagen Open China in Nanjing on Friday 29th June 2007; he was beaten in the second round of the Men’s Singles event by Croatia’s Tan Ruiwu.

Seeded four and the winner of the Men’s Singles crown at the Volkswagen Open Korea two weeks earlier, Oh Sang Eun lost a close seven games duel to the man in the twenty-first seeded position.

However, for the top four seeded players in the Men’s Singles event there were no hiccups.

Number one seed, China’s Wang Liqin beat Japan’s Jun Mizutani in a thrilling six games second round duel, whilst second seed and colleague Ma Lin overcame Japan’s Koji Matsushita at the same stage. Equally there were no problems for Wang Hao, the third seed and also from China. He beat Japan’s Taku Takakiwa in straight games.

In the Women’s Singles event the top four seeds all prevailed to reach the round of the last sixteen. The Chinese trio of Guo Yue, Guo Yan and Li Xiaoxia all marched forward in style.

Guo Yue and Guo Yan both beat Singaporean opposition in the respective guises of Yu Meng Yu and Shan Xiao Na, whilst Li Xiaoxia overcame Japan’s Ai Fujinuma.

Similarly, for the fourth seed, Hong Kong’s Tie Yana, she was untroubled, overcoming Japan’s An Konishi in straight games.

However, there were three major surprises in the opening round of the Women’s Singles event.

Chinese teenager Ding Ning accounted for fifth seed Singapore’s Li Jia Wei, Japan’s Haruna Fukuoka also caused Singaporean sadness, when she defeated sixth seed Wang Yue Gu and Hiroko Fujii brought more joy to Japan when she overcame seventh seed Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun.

The win over Jiang Huajun was most noteworthy. In 2007 Jiang Huajun has been in top form winning two Women’s Singles titles on the ITTF Pro Tour, she won in Chile and in Korea.

Meanwhile, in both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles’ event the third seeds departed on the second day of play.

In the Men’s Doubles Singapore’s Gao Ning and YangZi suffered at the hands of Chinese Taipei’s Chang Yen-Shu and Chiang Peng-Lung, whilst in the Women’s Doubles event it was also a defeat for Singapore. Li Jia Wei and Sun Bei Bei were beaten by Chinese teenagers Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen.

However, there were no problems for the top seeded pairings. In the Men’s Doubles China’s Ma Lin and Wang Liqin plus compatriots Chen Qi and Wang Hao progressed unscathed. Similarly in the Women’s Doubles, Hong Kong’s Tie Yana and Zhang Rui succeeded as did second seeds, China’s Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia.