World Team Cup
China Clear Favourites
The teams from China start as clear favourites to capture
the titles on offer, as the World Team Cup returns to calendar
of the International Table Tennis Federation in Magdeburg,
Germany; the event starts on Friday 5th September and concludes
on Sunday 7th September 2007.
It is the first time the tournament has been held since
August 1995, when the competition was held in Atlanta, USA
as a test event prior to the 1996 Olympic Games.
On that occasion, China finished in fifth place in the Men’s
Team event and in top spot in the counterpart female event.
Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui were both members of the male
team twelve years ago and both are present in Magdeburg in
2007 but not as players.
Liu Guoliang, who one year later won the Men’s Singles
title at the Atlanta Olympic Games, is the Chinese men’s
coach whilst Kong Linghui is one of the coaches working with
the women’s team.
The winners of the men’s team title in 1995 were the
Koreans and a member of that successful team is also present
in Magdeburg. Yoo Nam Kyu is the coach for his country’s
men’s team.
In both the Men’s and Women’s Team events the
Chinese line up is prodigious.
Wang Hao, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin, the top three players on
the current ITTF Men’s World Ranking list head the male
challenge with Chen Qi, ranked eight, in support, whilst for
the women the team is even more daunting.
The quartet in Magdeburg is formed by the top four World
ranked stars: Zhang Yining, Guo Yue, Wang Nan and Li Xiaoxia.
The major test for the superb Chinese in the Men’s
Team event may well come from the Koreans Oh Sang Eun, Ryu
Seung Min, Joo Se Hyuk and Lee Jung Sam or with home support
the Germans, Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Christian Süss
and Bastian Steger.
Meanwhile, in the women’s event Hong Kong with Tie
Yana, Lau Sui Fei, Lin Ling and Zhang Rui on duty may cause
problems.
Initially in both men’s and women’s events teams
are drawn into two groups with four teams in each group; the
teams finishing in first and second places progress to the
semi-finals.
The fixtures are organised on the same basis as will be
used in the Olympic Games in 2008. Three players in a team,
four singles matches with one doubles being played after the
second singles contest; no player is allowed to compete in
more than two matches.
Men’s Team Event:
Group A: China, Russia, Hungary, France
Group B: Korea, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria
Women’s Team Event
Group A: China, Hungary, Japan, Germany
Group B: Hong Kong, Korea, Belarus, Austria.
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"Source:
ITTF Press Release