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Swedish Open

Top Seeds Reach Semi-Finals

The top four seeded players in both the Men’s and Women’s Singles event at the Swedish Open in Stockholm reached the semi-final stage following the conclusion of matches in the quarter-finals on Saturday 17th November 2007.

Matters were dominated by players from the People’s Republic of China with Singapore’s Li Jia Wei being the sole interloper. However, the world’s most powerful table tennis nation can lay claim to her success. She learnt her trade in Beijing before moving south to Singapore in an effort to gain international honours.

In the Men’s Singles quarter-finals, top seed Wang Hao accounted for Singapore’s Gao Ning, second seed Ma Lin overcame Russia’s Alexei Smirnov whilst third seed Wang Liqin and fourth seed Ma Long ended Korean adventures. The former beat Joo Se Hyuk, the latter Ryu Seung Min.

Defeat for Alexei Smirnov but he was the one European who could leave with a smile on his face; in the third round he beat China’s Chen Qi, the number five seed in Stockholm, a win that will enhance his World ranking and will undoubtedly assure him of a direct entry to the Men’s Singles event at the Olympic Games in Beijing next year.

Meanwhile, at the quarter-final stage of the Women’s Singles event, number one seed Guo Yue defeated Hungary’s Krisztina Toth, second seed Li Xiaoxia and third seed Guo Yan ended Singaporean hopes with respective victories over Sun Bei Bei and Wang Yue Gu whilst Li Jia Wei ended the aspirations of Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun.

No surprises in the Women’s Singles event but shocks abounded in the Women’s Doubles competition. Top seeds Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia were beaten by compatriots Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen, who then lost in the semis to Japan’s Haruna Fukuoka and Sayaka Hirano. Meanwhile, China’s Cao Zhen and Guo Yan, who one day earlier had beaten second seeds Hong Kong’s Tie Yana and Zhang Rui, were defeated at the penultimate stage by Korea’s Kim Kyung Ah and Park Mi Young.

Similarly, in the Men’s Doubles the second seeds failed to reach final. Ma Lin and Wang Liqin lost to third seeds Ma Long and Wang Hao in the semis. However, for the top seeds, Singapore’s Gao Ning and Yang Zi there were no such heartaches. In the semi-finals they beat the host nation’s Fredrik Håkansson and Jörgen Persson.

In the events decided on Saturday 17th November, Korea’s Lee Jin Kwon won the Under 21 Men’s Singles final beating Emmanuel Lebesson of France, whilst in the counterpart female event Singapore’s Feng Tianwei overcame Poland’s Li Qian to clinch gold.

It was Lee Jin Kwon’s second Under 21 Men’s Singles title of the year whilst for Feng Tianwei it was her fourth Under 21 Women’s Singles crown in the space of as many months.