Four players from China on duty in the Men’s Singles event and all new to the international scene was a source of attraction on the opening day of play, Thursday 19th March 2009, at the German Open in Bremen.
Can one of them emulate the efforts of Ding Song in the early 1990s in Sweden and progress through the qualification stages to win the Men’s Singles at an open international tournament?
However, in 2009, the open international tournament scene is more buoyant than ever, thanks to the advent of the ITTF Pro Tour.
Therefore, the chances of a player in their first ever such tournament progressing from qualification to gold is not that likely.
Even for the mighty China, in a men’s event it is a daunting challenge.
Caught the Eye
However, amongst the four new faces in action, Yin Hang and Chen Jinqi did catch the eye.
Both remained unbeaten after their first two visits to the table; however, both were tested.
Tough Matches
Yin Hang accounted for Japan’s Hidetoshi Oya and Chinese Taipei’s Huang Sheng-Sheng, both in close seven games duels whilst Chen Jingqi was extended to seven games by Germany’s Steffen Mengel before recording a straight games victory over Croatia’s Andrei Gacina.
"Against Mengel I was three-one in the lead but I completely lost my head after the fourth game," explained Cheng Jingqi. "Fortunately, I came back in the seventh game."
However, for Zhang Peifeng and Liu Yanan it was a different scenario.
Problems
Zhang Peifeng was beaten in four straight games by the Czech Republic’s Tomas Konecny but recovered to overcome Singapore’s Ma Liang whilst for Liu Yanan it was two defeats.
He was beaten by Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi and the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik; both defeats were in six games.
Geht natürlich um Tischtennis
Man muss bedenken, der älteste der vier ist 15 Jahre alt, der jüngste 12 Jahre alt. Beängstigend, wenn es schon zwei Chinesische Teenager ohne große Probleme in die 1. Hauptrunde eines Pro Tour Turniers schaffen. Bin gespannt was für eine Auslosung die beiden erwischen und was da vielleicht noch an Überraschungen drin ist. Da werd ich morgen auf jedenfall mal nach Quoten schauen
