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Liebherr French Open

Romanian Teenager Steals the Limelight

Romania’s fifteen year old Cristina Hirici was the player to steal the limelight on the first day of play, Wednesday 31st October 2007, at the Liebherr French Open in Toulouse.

A member of the European Girls’ Team at the ITTF World Cadet (Under 15) Challenge in Cape Town, South Africa one week ago and one of the few players to record wins against the all conquering Asians; she beat Russia’s Anna Tikhomirova and Germany’s Kristin Silbereisen to assure herself of first place in her group.

The victory over Kristin Silbereisen was particularly noteworthy; in 2004 the German was the runner up in the Women’s Singles event at the Danish Open in Aarhus.

Meanwhile, for the host nation, it was seventeen year old Laura Perocheau who ended the day as the pride of France. She lost her opening match against Maria Mirou of Greece but then stunned the crowd by overcoming Korea’s Jee Min Hyung.

Similar to Kristin Silbereisen she is a player who has enjoyed success on the ITTF Pro Tour; earlier this year she reached the quarter-finals of the Women’s Singles event at the Liebherr Brazil Open and at the Liebherr Chile Open.

Otherwise it was very much according to ranking

In the Women’s Singles event, Croatia’s Sandra Paovic came through untroubled. The highest World ranked player in the qualification stage she beat England’s Joanna Parker in five games but for the next on the list, China’s Chen Qing, life was more testing. She needed seven games to overcome Dana Hadacova of the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, in the Men’s Singles event there was success in the qualification stage for three former ITTF Pro Tour champions and two reigning continental champions.

The host country’s Christophe Legout, who won the French Open in 1997, plus Russia’s Fedor Kuzmin, who succeeded in Slovenia in 2005, came through in style as did Japan’s Kasii Yoshida. In 2006 he won the Men’s Singles crown at the Serbian Open.

In similar vein it was success for Argentina’s Liu Song, the reigning Latin American champion and for Australia’s William Henzell, the Oceania champion. They all enjoyed relatively comfortable wins as did Japan’s Koji Matsushita, the highest World ranked man in the qualification stage.