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Liebherr Men’s World Cup

Wang Liqin Makes Intentions Clear

China’s Wang Liqin, the winner of the Men’s Singles title at the Liebherr World Championships in May has somewhat surprisingly never won the Men’s World Cup; on Friday 12th October 2007 in Barcelona, at the Liebherr Men’s World Cup, he made very clear his intentions that the drought may well be about to finish.

He gave a simply awesome performance to beat Argentina’s Liu Song, the reigning Latin American champion and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, twice winner of the Men’s World Cup. He defeated both in straight games to conclude the opening day unbeaten.

“It’s a case of making sure you are in the right frame of mind”, said Liu Guoliang the Chinese national team’s men’s coach. “Today, he was in the right frame of mind.”

No problems for Wang Liqin, the number three seed, nor were there problems for the other highly seeded players.

Wang Liqin’s colleagues Ma Lin and Wang Hao both came through successfully. Ma Lin, the defending champion and second seed, overcame Korea’s Joo Se Hyuk without raising a bead of perspiration. The Korean was forced to withdraw at the end of the first game owing to a back injury but in his second duel Ma Lin’s face was bathed in perspiration. He was extended to six games by the rapidly improving Gao Ning of Singapore.

Success for Ma Lin and also for the top seed, Wang Hao; he beat Chinese Taipei’s Chuan Chih-Yuan and Korea’s Ryu Seung Min to end the day as one of three unbeaten players, the other being fourth seed, Germany’s Timo Boll.

Absent from the World Team Cup in Magdeburg the previous week through illness, the German number one was in impressive form against Austria’s Werner Schlager and Korea’s Oh Sang Eun. He beat the former in straight games, the latter with the loss of only the second game.

Two players from each of four groups qualify for stage two with the hopes of Ryu Seung, Chuan Chih-Yuan, Gao Ning, Marc Duran, Vladimir Samsonov, Liu Song, Oh Sang Eun and Werner Schlager still alive. Each recorded one win and one loss on day one.

Ryue Seung Min and Chuan Chih-Yuan both overcame Australia’s William Henzell, whilst Gao Ning beat Spain’s Marc Duran and the latter gained a walk-over against Joo Se Hyuk. Meanwhile, Vladimir Samsonov and Liu Song accounted for Egypt’s Ahmed Ali Saleh with Werner Schlager and Oh Sang Eun both recording wins against Canada’s Pradeeban Peter-Paul.