Salwa Cup Kuwait Open 13th-16th March 2008
Preview
Former Champions Required to Qualify
Croatia’s Tamara Boros and Wang Chen of the United
States, players who have on three occasions won Women’s
Singles titles on the ITTF Pro Tour are both required to compete
in the qualification stage of the Women’s Singles event
at the Salwa Cup Kuwait Open, which commences on Thursday
13th March and concludes on Sunday 16th March 2008.
Tamara Boros is the highest world ranked player in the initial
stage of the Women’s Singles event where the top sixteen
ranked players receive a direct entry to the main draw.
Furthermore, there are other illustrious names who have to
compete for the right to exercise their talents in the main
draw; Hong Kong’s Zhang Rui, Singapore’s Feng
Tianwei and Yu Meng Yu, Romania’s Daniela Dodean, Korea’s
Lee Eun Hee plus Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus all have to
compete on the first day of play. At the recently completed
Evergrande Real Estate World Team Championships, all were
on duty for their respective countries in the Championship
Division.
The fact that such high quality players are competing in
the initial groups underlines the strength of the entry in
a tournament where the Chinese start as clear favourites to
take the major honours.
Zhang Yining, Li Xiaoxia, Guo Yue and Wang Nan are the respective
top four seeds in the Women’s Singles event whilst for
the men; the dominance of China is also prevalent.
Wang Hao is seeded one followed by Ma Lin, Wang Liqin and
the defending Men’s Singles champion, Ma Long.
Thiago Monteiro, a member of Brazil’s gold medal winning
team at the Pan American Games in 2007 heads the lists of
qualifiers in the Men’s Singles event which sees other
celebrated names in action.
Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chih-Chi was in action for Chinese
Taipei at the recently completed Evergrande World Team Championships
whilst Russia’s Igor Rubstov plus the Koreans Lee Jung
Sam, Choi Hyun Jin and Lee Jin Kwon have all proved themselves
worthy adversaries on the ITTF Pro Tour.
Play starts on Thursday 13th March 2008 with matches in the
qualification stage of the Men’s Singles eveny
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"Source:
ITTF Press Release