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Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-7, 2002

 

Second Round Men's Singles, to Final 16

By Larry Hodges

Where to begin when all 16 matches this round were each worthy of a separate news item? 

The BIG upset, of course, was Qin Zhijian's upset of world #1 Wang Liqin, covered already in the linked news item.

The round's second major upset was Hong Kong's Leung Chu Yan (world #56) over China's Wang Hao (world #16). Wang is considered by many to be the future big star for China, but not this time, as Leung advanced to the final 16, 7,-8,9,8,-9,7. 

China's Liu Guoliang (world #9), who's had his share of struggles the last couple of years, struggled but prevailed against Austria's Chen Weixing, 9,-5,3,9,-9,-5,8. Liu, who has won just about every major title possible (including men's singles at the Worlds and Olympics) has never seemed to have adjusted to the larger 40mm ball. 

Of the next three Chinese "powers," only one had an easy time, with Kong  Linghui (world #5) defeating Brazil's Cazuo Masumoto (unranked qualifier), 7,1,8,4. Liu Guozheng (world #10) struggled early on in defeating Russia's Alexei Smirnov (world #47) at 11,12,-7,8,5.  Ma Lin (world #2) defeated teammate Guo Jinhao (unranked qualifier), but not without a struggle: 7,7,-4,6,-8,6.

USA's David Zhuang won the first against Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk (world #26), 11-9. Cheung is your basic two-winged power looper, who (like many before him), had trouble with Zhuang's steady and deceptive blocking. He gradually adjusted, and after struggling for two games, won the last three relatively easily. Match Cheung, -9,9,6,5,3. With Zhuang out, there are no USA players left in the tournament.

Austria's Karl Jindrak. Photo by Diego Schaaf, copyright 2002

Austria's Karl Jindrak (world #171) had his hands full in "upsetting" Norways' Istvan Moldovan (world #150), 6,-7,11,-7,-6,6,8.

Germany's Torben Wosik (world #41) upset Netherland's Danny Heister, -5,11,4,5,9.

Arai Shu, the unranked player from Japan, saw his run finally at an end, at the hands of Brazil's Hugo Hoyama (world #103), 10,9,9,-8,9.

Austria's Werner Schlager (world #7) also had to struggle, just edging out China Taipei's Chang Yen-Shu (world #32) after falling behind 3-1, -5,5,-12,-5,9,5,2. With Timo Boll's withdrawal, Schlager is the big hope for the Europeans.

Germany's Thomas Keinath (world #94) barely pulled out a small upset over Romania's Adrian Crisan (world #66), 10,-6,5,8,-2,-8,8.

Korea's Lee Chul Seung (world #30) pulled off a "zero," defeating Hong Kong's Ko Lai Chak (world #43) at 0,7,7,8. 

Others advancing:

China Taipei's Chuan Chih-Yuan. Photo by Diego Schaaf, copyright 2002

China Taipei's Chuan Chih-Yuan (world #17) and a semifinalist last year, won his match against Denmark's Allen Bentsen (world #45), 13,11,8,8. Chuan is one of the more crowd-pleasing players with his smooth two-winged looping game, and still looks like a teenager.

Korea's Oh Sang Eun (world #14) and his two-winged "whip" loops had no problems with Sweden's Jens Lundqvist (world #52), 7,9,8,6.

And Sweden's Fredrick Hakansson (world #33), still hoped to be the heir of Waldner, showed promise in barely pulling out an upset against Korea's Ryu Seung Min (world #19), 7,8,-7,9,-10,13.

For complete second-round results, and for the 8ths match-ups, see the men's singles draw. 

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