World Table Tennis Championships

by Tim Boggan Maybe you heard? The Chinese were at the Dom Sportova in Zagreb for the May 21-27, 2007 Liebherr World Championships. The European professionals too. In the Men’s Singles, they had three players in the last 16; none made the quarter-finals. In the Women’s Singles, they had two players in the last 16; none made the quarter-finals. In the Men’s and Women’s Doubles, the Europeans had two pairs in the last eight, none in the semi-finals. In the Mixed, they had one pair in the last 16; none in the eighths. (photo by Diego Schaaf ©2007)

Uh-huh, in all five events, the finalists were Chinese. Bodes well for the Sport, or at least the 2008 Beijing Olympics, eh?

Still, though one European world-class player was saying how discouraging, how hopeless it was really, to compete against the Chinese, I assume you’d like to familiarize yourself with some of the efforts of other prominent players wherever they’re based (the ITTF now has 204 member countries, making it one of the five largest sporting bodies in the world).

Men’s Singles

The 108-page artfully designed program lists 304 men contending for the Singles title. As usual, however, qualifying rounds quickly diminished the field. Initially, winners from 84 round robin groups advanced, but not in a uniform way. The winners from groups 1-44 did not have to go on to play a first Round KO match as did the 40 winners in Groups 45-84— they were given an edge because of their better world ranking (each ranking revealed conveniently to spectators by the number the player was wearing on the back of his shirt). In the second Round KO match, the 44 winners from groups 1-44 joined the 20 winners from Groups 45-84 who’d played that extra, first Round KO match, and on completion of this round the 32 survivors went on to join the 96 exempted in the 128-entry main draw.

No U.S. player was able to advance to a second Round KO match. Mark Hazinski (ranked 386) opened against a United Arab Emirate player and so did his nose. Up 2-1 in games, Mark had to take an injury time out, because, for the first time ever in a tournament, he had a bloody nose, one that was not easily staunched— not in a pinch, not with ice. Indeed, as the minutes ticked away, Coach Danny Seemiller was fearful Mark would be defaulted. But Mark gamely went back on court, held his head high— too high to win the fourth. Then Danny said, “Look, if your nose spurts open, it does—but you can’t play this way, head held back.” And taking the advice to heart, Mark easily won the fifth. Then, however, he lost to Spanish penholder attacker Jesus Cantero (467).
Eric Owens (394) went down to Austria’s Stefan Fegerl (445). In the U.S., Eric’s forehand would have gone in for a winner; here it comes rocketing back— and is he ready?

Han Xiao (550), helped by a net ball at 9-all in the fifth, stopped a young Lithuanian. Next, he eliminated Bulgaria’s Konstantin Parapanov (315) after being behind 3-1 in games and 8-5 down in the seventh. “I was mostly controlling the points,” he said, “getting openings, and at the end the guy couldn’t sustain his blocks.” But then Han, up 4-2, was KO’d in the seventh, his backhands netting and nettling him, by Slovenian Mitja Horvat (350) who won swing points with backspin serves that Han expected to be short but that went long. In Doubles, Eric/Han lost their first match to Italian qualifiers Valenti Piacentini/Stefano Tomasi in five, dropping the pivotal third; 12-10.

Misha Kazantsev (698) lost to bespectacled Frenchman Adrien Mattenet (265), reported to be soft. “If I served long, he manhandled it; if short, he returned service so I couldn’t power the ball. Players here kill us with their short games.” Victor Subonj (1265) scored a gutsy win over South African Shane Overmeyer (557), coming from 2-0 and 9-6 down in the third to 12, 10, 12 thrillingly prevail. But those long games took their toll. Against the Ukraine’s Yevhen Prischchepa (306), on winning the third 11-2, Vic was 2-1 up, but then what happened was elementary: lack of strong competition hadn’t kept him in shape, and he ended it all by serving off.

Mark and Vic did well in Doubles. In their first qualifying match they won against the English pair of 13-year-old Gavin Evans, said by an Englishman to be the best cadet in Europe, and 17-year-old Daniel Reed (706) who had the greatest competitive day of his life in Singles, advancing to the main draw. The other English pair owe much of their success to Liu Jin Yi, a Chinese coach based in England. They are Ormesby Club teenagers Paul Drinkhall, the English National Champion who says he can’t keep up with his schoolwork, and Darius Knight, sometimes likened to former English International Des Douglas. They just missed qualifying, losing to a Kazakhstan pair, 9 in the fifth. Remarkably, the average age of the English Team is not even 17. Mark and Vic went on to down a Luxembourg pair before losing to Argentina’s South American Champion Liu Song and his partner Pablo Tabachnik. Mark said he and Vic controlled play, but lost the first from 9-6 up and the big points thereafter.

Also not advancing in Singles were Canadian players Pierre-Luc Hinse (492), and Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi (534). Playing now with sponge rather than pips, promising Junior Shen Qiang (509) upset winner over Kuwait’s Al-Hasan Ibrahim (344) before falling to North Sweden’s double-wing erratic attacker Jon Persson.(321). The one North American qualifier was Pradeeban Peter-Paul (284). He eliminated Dragutin Surbek, Jr. (190), the two-time Croatian champ who’s about to go into coaching (his famous father is now President of the Croatian TTA).

Matches of note in the first Round proper found six of the 36 seeds— all Europeans— no longer in the draw. Werner Schlager (seeded 11), the best Austrian player since Richard Bergmann played for England, and the 2003 World Champion, was eliminated 4-1 by Slovakia’s Lubomir Pistej. The 2004 Europe Top 12 winner Alexei Smirnov (18), a product of one of Russia’s 250 sports schools that offer training in table tennis, fell 4-2 to Nigeria’s Segun Toriola. Petr Korbel (22), Atlanta Olympic Games semifinalist, couldn’t take a game from Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira, 2007 World Junior Champ.

Romania’s Adrian Crisan (27) lost to Denmark’s Finn Tugwell, Bronze Doubles winner at Athens with Michael Maze. Zoran Primorac (28), the revered Croatian, just celebrated his 38th birthday after 20 years as a Yugo/Croat International. He’s had World, Olympic, and European successes in Doubles with our Ilija Lupulesku. But here he lost four very close games (-9, -9, -10, -11) to South Korea’s Lee Jung Sam (ranked 137), regarded as a clone of his coach, Yoo Nam Kyu, 1988 Seoul Olympic Champion. Lee later just missed a big win against Athens Olympic Champ Ryu Seung Min down 5-0 in the seventh, only to lose nine points in a row and the match!

Also upset was France’s dramatic, always entertaining, Damien Eloi (seeded 35). This, however, was not that surprising since the elfin Eloi is now almost 38 and his conqueror was Janos Jakab (ranked 138) who, though his parents had wanted him to go into outdoor sports, has become Hungary’s hope to regain some of its lost glory. Jakab catches the ball very early so that, as one fellow said, his loop and smash are much the same. He’d gone on to upset Italy’s Yang Min who’d barely escaped India’s No. 2, Subhajit Sara (268). Twenty-five years ago, Manjit Dua, the Indian Coach here, had made German connections while playing in the Bundesliga, and so the Indian team (government-financed to attend a series of yearly International tournaments) had two weeks preparation for Zagreb, training and playing competitively in Dusseldorf.

As is often the case, some of the best matches were played prior to the quarter-finals. Hong Kong’s Leung Chu Yan eliminated Taipei’s Wu Chih-Chi, 2006 World University Doubles Champ, and Japan’s Matsudaira, both in the seventh. Another Japanese player, 17-year-old lefty Jen Mizutani, looked very good against Serbia’s Slobodan Grujic (58) 11-9 in the sixth, then downed in straight games Hong Kong’s Li Ching, Doubles semifinalist with Ko Lai Chak. Li, according to one aficionado, after starting as a penholder, then switching to shakehands, then switching back to penholder, is perhaps the most improved player on the circuit. Matsudaira looked even better when a 14-12 win put him up 3-0 on Singapore’s Indian Open Champ Gao Ning. Another blitz coming up? Yep. Only, surprise— the next four games go to Gao, which gradually stops the pocket of Japanese spectators from frenziedly clapping or clubbing together their upright tight balloons.

Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia (125), showing a great touch and an easily controlled block that gave him a 3-2 lead, almost shut down Germany’s Christian Suss (48). Fellow German Bastian Steger rallied from 3-1 down to oust Singapore’s Yang Zi. Taipei’s Chiang Peng-lung (31) just got by Austria’s Daniel Habesohn (208) 11-8 in the seventh. Hungary’s Peter Fazekas (140) did well to eliminate Thomas Keineth (80), formerly of Germany but now a just-turned Slovakian citizen who’s good enough to boost their World team. Also, give Russia’s Grigori Vlassov (275) kudos for getting to the Round of 64 before being ousted by Lee Jung Sam, 11-9 in the seventh.

Marcos Freitas (159), current European Youth Champion based in Madeira, knocked out Sweden’s Jens Lundqvist (51), 11-9 in the seventh. Former World Champion Jorgen Persson, un-retired, thought he’d coach better if he kept a playing hand in the game? He lost to Austrian chopper Chen Weixing who has to be one of the few seeds who admits his wife plays table tennis. Perhaps she too reads Kung-Fu books and roots for the Chicago Bulls? Sweden’s Robert Svensson scored a 13-11 in the seventh win over Hungary’s Ferenc Pazsy who’d played in Richard Lee’s North American Teams tournament several years ago, then fell to Europe’s favorite, Timo Boll. That left in the Round of 32 Frederick Hakansson as the only survivor of once mighty Sweden, sans here any helmeted Viking supporters. He lost to China’s 2006 World University Champ Hou Yingchao whom he had down 9-0 in their opening game. Later, in losing to Wang Liqin, Hou, with his long-range chops, rush-in off-the-bounce backhands, and especially his cradled, curve-around-the-table forehands, had the audience gasping in glee.
Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive (34) has a reputation for being notoriously weak against defenders—and against South Korea’s Joo Se Hyuk, 2003 World runner-up, he stubbornly refuses to finesse points. Instead, shorts hiked up to his crotch, he goes mano a mano, trying to lift, loop, and grunt down Joo’s vaunted backhand defense— and without spin variance at that. With games 1-1, when J-M impatiently loses the third 12-10, a change of shirt, nor a splash of bottled water on his face, refreshes him enough to continue challenging.

Eighth’s play produced mostly, but not all, great matches. I’d read somewhere that Belarus’s Vladimir Samsonov was a slow starter, but, bobbing up and down in readiness to play the point, and loping purposefully to pick up a loose ball, he wins the first from Gao Ning, 13-11. “VLA-DEE!” comes the encouraging cry from the largely European audience. But it’s been 10 years since Samsonov was the World runner-up to Waldner, and he’s slowed down— will eventually have to go the full seven games to advance. It was really his early-game play that allowed him to do that— in the third, he wins seven of the first eight points; in the fourth, he leads 5-0; in the fifth, 6-0; and in the seventh he’s again off to a fast start.

Wang Hao, current Asian Games Champion, is pushed to the limit (winning the first at 13, the seventh at 2) by Taipei’s Chuan Chih-yuan, 2002 Pro Tour Final winner. But then in the quarter-finals Wang blanks Joo, who’d eliminated China’s 18-year-old Olympic hopeful Ma Long. Joo can pick-hit well, but doesn’t get much chance to against Wang’s confident penhold attack. First-ball kills deaden Joo’s defense and the audience’s enthusiasm. At one point in the straight-game match, the assistant umpire, with his evaluator sitting nearby, faults Joo. The Korean didn’t like that and neither did the spectators. But I was told that if an evaluator sees an umpire miss a serve fault it’s an automatic failure for him— so better safe than sorry, eh? After that serve call, much to the audience’s disappointment, Joo is outscored 17-2.

Hao Shuai— of the debacle in 2005 Shanghai when, at his first World’s, up 3-0 and 10-7 with his opponent Maze on the floor, he somehow missed a forehand and lost the match— is also a perilous winner over China’s super-fast Chen Qi, 9 in the sixth, 9 in the seventh. We’ll later see Chen team with Ma Lin in an acrobatic display of circus shots to win the Doubles over Wang Liqin/Wang Hao. Meanwhile, Wang Hao was being so straight-game dismissive of Hao Shuai that someone said to me, “You’re not covering this match, are you?” The implication being that the outcome had already been decided.

Three-time European Champion Samsonov enters his quarter-finals court to more cheers than Ma Lin, but of course the atmosphere here is so different from Shanghai and “CHIN-a! CHIN-a!” In the first, Vladi gets off in a 4-0 rush, but Ma draws even— and wins the first when Samsonov pushes his serve return into the net. Lots of pressure on players today to keep the serve return short. Oh, oh, here comes a controversy. Did Vladi’s ball hitting the table edge go up or down? Most of the audience wanted it to go up, didn’t like it when Ma protested. But Ma pointed up to the view screen, asked everyone to judge fairly. First it appeared the ball went up; then on a re-play it looked like it went down. Samsonov conceded the point. “He’s always like that,” said a voice behind me, “always generous.” But he’s soon down 2-0.

In the third, acing a return, and winning a long exchange that sends cheering fans to their feet; “VLA-DEE! VLA-DEE!” goes ahead 7-3. But then he falters, loses two key points on his own serve, and, as Ma, giving clipped, gruff exhortations to self, charges on, Vladi looks lackadaisical. Two serves and two top-of-the-bounce winning follows by Ma allow him to go 3-zip up. From this Samsonov can’t recover. Europe itself is almost undone.

“TEE-MO! TEE-MO!” begin the chants. Boll’s opponent, Greece’s Kalinikos Kreanga, in headband and wearing a Hellas shirt, gets less enthusiastic, but respectful, applause. He’d beaten Timo at the last World Cup, and threatens from mid-distance or beyond to attack with sudden, flashing moves from either wing. But he’s not on his game. Before serving, knowing Boll facing him is in his familiar crouch position, the edge of his blade extended in front of him, ready to spring to an attack, he forcefully throws the ball into his racket a few times and perhaps this helps him to focus. But, though Boll’s play isn’t crisp, Kreanga can win only one game.

Ryu, who plays for the Samsung Club, and Oh Sang Eun, who plays for K T&G (Korea Tobacco and Ginseng), has won the fifth game 12-10 and so has a 3-2 lead on Ryu. During the close mid-game sixth, Oh’s racket on the upswing catches the table edge and apparently the rubber is microscopically nicked. The umpire says he can’t continue playing with it; the assistant umpire says he can’t play with it; the referee says he can’t play with it. Oh smiles, is polite, but in protesting obviously thinks the ruling is absurd. Ryu comes over, says, “C’mon, let us play, his racket won’t bother me.” So now all three officials change their judgment call and the match proceeds. Makes you wonder, huh? How with some umpires it takes a little while for common sense to kick in. Ryu wins the sixth and the seventh.
That puts him in the quarter-finals against the lefthander Boll. “Timo’s never lost to Ryu,” says one observer confidently. (He was already asking if I knew the names of the three lefthanders who’d won the Men’s—Bengtsson, Ono, Gatien.) As the two players parade into the Arena, the TV view-screens above show German flags waving, and, amid the horn honks and rattles, spectators screaming “TEE-MO! TEE-MO”!

Towels are dropped into Tibhar holders shaped like giant ping-pong balls, and play begins with Boll off to a 3-0 start. But Ryu catches him at 6-all and goes on to take the first. In the second, Timo rebounds to lead 6-0. But then, how does it happen to World number 3? He manages only one more point that game, gets only three the next. The horn sounds like a fog horn; the rattlers are shaken. Ryu is returning serve beautifully, Boll can’t mount an offense. Only in the fourth and last game do the two very different levels of play merge into one. But, though Timo fights to deuce from double match-point down, the seemingly impossible happens: Boll loses in straight games.

In the one semi-final, “MA LIN! MA LIN!” and Wang Hao come striding in to the strains of “We Are The Champions.” In this all-Chinese semi-final there are no coaches to root against China. Wang, wearing a thin red ribbon of a bandage like a tourniquet below his right knee, takes the first game. As Ma wins the second, I’m struck by his pre-receive play with his racket. He holds it in his left hand, repeatedly twirls it, then at the last second transfers it to his right hand. No, I never saw him drop it. In the third, helped by a net to a 9-7 lead, he just stands there as Wang passes him on his forehand. I didn’t like that non-move. And I didn’t like the ending to this game. Up 10-9, Wang mishit an easy ball, then dumped one into the net, then whiffed to give Ma the 2-1 advantage.

In the fourth, Ma’s almost a non-player, isn’t moving, pushes balls. Two games each. In the fifth, Ma, who hasn’t looked fit in losing a 9-6 lead, does, at 9-all, earns a point, and when Wang misses a flip return of serve Ma’s 3-1 up. In the sixth, helped by some errors from Wang, Ma wins the last five points and the match. As he raises his hands to the stands on both sides of the court, the guy next to me says, “Wang Hao lost to Ryu in the Olympics. So in case Ryu gets by Wang Liqin, Ma figures to have the better chance of bringing China the title. That’s why he was saving his strength this match.”

In the other semi-final, the threat is real. Penhold attacker Ryu is off to a 4-0 start, and looks far more quick and agile than defending champion Wang Liqin. Both use footstamp serves, and both show powerful forehands. From 2-all in the second, Wang wins 9 of the next 10 points, evens the match. Then continues his roll, goes up 7-1 in the third— has taken 16 of the last 18 points. But Ryu, though down 5-1 in the fourth, hasn’t collapsed. Wang has been controlling play, backhand topspinning safely while waiting for a forehand opening. But Ryu, relentless with his run-around, stretch attack, moves into a zone of his own. And though now Wang, behind, is back lobbing, fishing, then changing the point-pace with a bounding backhand that draws him 9-8 close, he thereafter plays unevenly, and finally, down 14-13, serves into the net. Two games each.

High risk, all-out play continues with Wang, ever capable of exploiting Ryu’s open far forehand, winning the fifth. In the sixth, at 7-all, Ryu pops up a ball, but, strangely, Wang chooses not to smash it, and they’re soon at deuce. Great curving counter-play under intense pressure brings roars from the crowd and the match into the seventh. Now, though, mid-game errors by Ryu bespeak finality, and, taking their cue, a swarm of yellow-jacketed photographers move en masse into position for frontal shots of Wang’s victory finish.

Finals time. Ma, receiving serve, is all energy— jumps high and, as if holding a fly swatter instead of a racket, snaps in a winner. He opens with a 5-0 lead, wins the first easily. In the second, he’s up 5-1, holds that lead too. Compared to Ma’s spectacular run-around forehands, Wang’s backhand blocks and topspin returns seem passive. But Wang’s patience and his own forehands zinging in win him the third game—and draw from Ma a smile, or grimace, it’s hard to tell. Another slow start for Wang in the fourth, so it’s he who uncharacteristically again has to go pick up hard-hit balls. Suddenly there’s a great combination counter and lobbing point with Ma captivating the crowd by going back, back, no longer facing the table, to thrust up a swaying, spinning overhead.

Ma seems unstoppable. Up 3-1 and 7-1 in the fifth, he’s about to win that elusive World Championship….Uh, maybe. Wang cuts the lead to 7-4 and Ma calls Time! It seems his usual nervous mannerisms are more pronounced. He twitches his shoulders, fans his face with his racket, hitches up his shorts, wipes both sides of his face with his shirt sleeves, makes guttural noises to self. At 7-5 he whiffs. Wang ties it up at 9-all. “I wouldn’t mind seeing another game,” says a fan. He gets his wish. This brings another broad smile, or grimace, from Ma. When Ma’s down 10-7 in the sixth and goes hopelessly stumbling after a ball to his far forehand, it portends a grim end for him. In the seventh, with Wang up 6-5, a woman behind me starts a cell-phone conversation in Chinese. She plans on giving an on-the-spot account of the finish? If so, she hasn’t long to talk. Ma, vulnerable as ever on his forehand side, gives up five of the last six points—
just sort of succumbs mentally as well as physically.

Wang Liqin thus joins Zhuang Zedong to become only the second player in history to win a third World Men’s Singles Championship. Ma reportedly is in tears. His grandfather, he’s just heard, has passed away. It’s China’s day of course—but not Ma’s.