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Liebherr French Open

ITTF Pro Tour Returns to France in Style

After a break of seven years, the ITTF Pro Tour returns to France with the Liebherr French Open commencing on Wednesday 31st October 2007 and concluding with the finals on Sunday 4th November 2007.

Home for the tournament is Toulouse.

In 2000, the last time the French Open was held, Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Peng-Lung and Romania’s Mihaela Steff were the most successful players on duty; both departed with a brace of titles.

Chiang Peng-Lung won the Men’s Singles crown and with Chang Yen-Shu was anointed Men’s Doubles champion; likewise, Mihaela Steff clinched gold in the Women’s Singles event and with Italy’s Alessia Arisi, she was crowned Women’s Doubles champion.

Both Chiang Peng-Lung and Chang Yen-Shu have entered the Liebherr French Open but Mihaela Steff is absent and Alessia Arisi’s international career came to a halt some years ago.

However, to repeat the success that Chiang Peng-Lung and Chang Yen-Shu enjoyed in 2000, seven years later is, to say the least, a tall order.

The top six players on the current ITTF Men’s World Ranking list are all on duty in Toulouse.

The top three Chinese stars Wang Hao, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin plus Germany’s Timo Boll who is ranked four and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus who stands in fifth spot, are all on duty, as is China’s Ma Long, ranked six.

Furthermore, winner of the Men’s Singles event at the two most recent tournaments on the ITTF Pro Tour, Chen Qi also of China is present; he is ranked eight in the world and is the seventh seed in Toulouse.

In fact, of the top twelve World ranked men, only the Koreans, Oh Sang Eun, Ryu Seung Min and Joo Se Hyuk plus China’s Hao Shuai are missing.

Meanwhile, in the Women’s Singles event it is a similar scenario; only Guo Yue of China and Jiang Huajun of Kong Kong of the top twelve players on the ITTF Women’s World Rankings are absentees.

Reigning Olympic champion and the winner one week ago in Austria, China’s Zhang Yining, is seeded one with colleagues Wang Nan and Guo Yan seeded two and three respectively.

Singapore’s Li Jia Wei is the number four seed.