World's best paddlers squaring off in Jiangyin

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 29, 2003

World's best paddlers squaring off in Jiangyin

The 16 best players in the world will meet at the 22nd World Cup Table Tennis Championship, which will open on October 9 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province.

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The 16 best players in the world will meet at the 22nd World Cup Table Tennis Championship, which will open on October 9 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province.

According to International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rules, defending champion and the world No 1 Timo Boll of Germany is an automatic qualifier. Champions from six continents are eligible, including Asian champion Wang Hao of China, South American champion Liu Song of Argentina, North American champion Johnny Huang of Canada and Oceanian champion Peter Jackson of New Zealand.

European champion Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus withdrew from the event and Torgen Wosik of Germany, runner-up at the European Championship, will take his place. Belgian world No 9 Jean-Michel Saive is the replacement for the African champion.

The other entrants include Austrian Werner Schlager, winner of the World Championships singles title; Chinese world No 2 Ma Lin; Chinese Taipei's world No 5 Chuan Chin-Yuan and world No 12 Chiang Peng-Lung; Greek world No 8 Kalinikos Kreanga; and Russian world No 27 Alexei Smirnov.

The ITTF sent out three wild cards to home player Wang Liqin, Croatian paddler Zoran Primorac and South Korean Joo Se Hyuk, runner-up at this year's World Championship.

Players are divided into four groups for a round-robin competition, with the top two from each group advancing to the next round.

Chinese paddlers will be gunning for the country's 13th World Cup title, but first since Ma Lin won in 2000. Samsonov and Boll were crowned in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

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