Liebherr German Open
Top Seeds Toppled by Teenage Compatriots
Wang Hao and Guo Yue, the number one seeds respectively in
the Men’s and Women’s Singles event at the Liebherr
German Open in Bremen both suffered defeat on Saturday 10th
November 2007 and both lost to Chinese national team teenage
compatriots.
Guo Yue, the reigning World champion, was beaten in the third
round of the Women’s Singles event by sixteen year old
Liu Shiwen whilst one round later, at the quarter-final stage
of the Men’s Singles competition, Wang Hao, the winner
of the Liebherr Men’s World Cup one month ago, suffered
at the hands of nineteen year old Ma Long.
Alas for Liu Shiwen there was defeat at the quarter-final
stage, she lost to Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun, who is
the only player to reach the penultimate stage of the Women’s
Singles event and is not representing the People’s Republic
of China.
Li Xiaoxia, the number two seed and Guo Yan the number three
seed progressed without alarm, whilst Cao Zhen, the Liebherr
German Open champion in 2005, also booked her place in the
semi-finals. At the quarter-final stage Li Xiaoxia beat Singapore’s
Singapore’s Wang Yue Gu, Guo Yan ousted the host nation’s
Elke Wosik and Cao Zhen overcame colleague Ding Ning.
Similarly in the Men’s Singles event, China’s
second seed Ma Lin and third seed Wang Liqin progressed to
the semi-final stage as did fourth seed Germany’s Timo
Boll. No problems for Ma Lin in the quarters, he received
a walk-over against Damien Eloi of France, who had to withdraw
suffering from a back injury but one round earlier he had
been tested to the limit by Chinese Taipei’s Chiang
Peng-Lung. He saved one match point in the sixth game before
securing a seven games victory.
A tough third round match for Ma Lin and also for Wang Liqin;
he was extended the full seven games distance by Germany’s
nineteen year old Dimitrij Ovtcharov but against a second
German in the quarters, Christian Süss, he experienced
few problems. The reigning World champion recorded a straight
games victory.
Two close matches for the second and third seeds and in the
quarters it was the same for Timo Boll; he needed the full
seven games to beat Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus.
Defeats for the top seeds in the singles events but not in
the doubles; in the Men’s Doubles, number one seeds
Singapore’s Gao Ning and Yang Zi beat China’s
Chen Qi and Qiu Yike in the semis whilst in the counterpart
contest an all-Chinese duel saw Wang Hao and Wang Liqin overcome
Ma Lin and Ma Long.
It was a similar scenario in the Women’s Doubles; at
the penultimate stage the number one seeds, China’s
Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia accounted for Singapore’s Li
Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu, whilst Korea’s Kim Kyung Ah
and Park Mi Young proved too experienced for Chinese youthful
pairing of Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen.
In the two events to be decided on Saturday 10th November
2007, Russia’s Kirill Skachkov defeated Germany’s
Patrick Baum in the Under 21 Men’s Singles final whilst
in the Under 21 Women’s Singles gold medal contest,
Poland’s Li Qian ended the aspirations of Singapore’s
Feng Tianwei; for Kirill Skachkov it was the first of Under
21 ITTF Pro Tour title of his career whilst for Li Qian it
was her fourth and her third in the space of four weeks.
She won one year ago at the Liebherr German Open in Bayreuth
whilst in recent weeks she succeeded in both Russia and France
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"Source:
ITTF Press Release