Home paddlers set ITTF Pro Tour finals a "Chinese Day"

Timo Boll of Germany found himself the sole non-Chinese player through to the final day of the US$240,000 table tennis yearending tournament after the ITTF Pro Tour grand finals day 2 matches in Beijing on December 11.

Liu Jia, a Beijing-born Chinese who changed to Austrian nationality in her twenties, is the only other survival who represents Europe.

Boll, 23, who topped the world rankings in late 2003 and got used to be lone in an international table tennis tournament packed with talented Chinese paddlers, set up a semi-final clash against former world number one Ma Lin with a 4-1 win over 8th-ranked Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus in the men's singles event.

Triple World Cup holder Ma, who suffered an early exit in the Olympic men's singles last August in Athen and came out a doubles champion with his 20-year-old partner Chen Qi, was the only Chinese left in the down zone of the tournament.

He has beaten Swedish veteran Peter Karlsson and super Dane Michael Maze in a row en route for the yearend honor.

Another former top-ranked Chinese Wang Liqin will fight against current world number one Wang Hao, the Olympic silver medallist who revenged his teammate Kong Linghui on reigning world champion Werner Schlager of Austria 4-3 in the quarters, for a book to the singles semifinal.

Wang Liqin, who took his world title in 2001 and became the Olympic bronze medalist in Athens, is notorious for choking in clutch moments, and showed sturdy minds when facing a most

difficult encounter against one of China's younger generation Chen Qi, who played a desperately aggressive game for the six-set match here on Saturday.

In the women's play, defending champion Niu Jianfeng, who ousted fifth seed Tamara Boros of Croatia to down Europe to one, is expected to give a difficult time to Liu Jia, who surprisingly

outclassed 10th-ranked Lau Sui Fei of Hong Kong, China, 4-1 to reach the semis.

Top rated Zhang Yining surrendered 4-1 to Wang Nan in an eye-catching showdown between the table tennis world new queen and the "grand slam" winner of Olympic, World Championships and World Cup crowns.

Wang Nan next meets Chinese teenager Guo Yue, who breezed past Olympic bronze medalist Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea 4-1 (11-5, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6,11-4) to set up the all-Chinese semi.

Both men's and women's doubles finals will see Chinese pairs to clash against each others as the finalists here just repeated China's Olympic entry list for the doubles event, with Ma Lin/Chen

Qi vs Kong Linghui/Wang Hao, while Wang Nan/Zhang Yining vs Niu Jianfeng/Guo Yue.

"I've been totally coming out for the match, and that's why I win today's game against the current world number one," said triple Olympic champion Wang Nan. "Also, Zhang has not trained as much as me after she was crowned the Olympic women's singles since she had so many social responsibilities as a historic gold winner."

A native of Beijing, Zhang received no louder applause than Wang.

With one set down already, Zhang, who was regarded the new generation of China table tennis, gave no chance for Wang to recover in the second set and easily swapped an 11-4 win.

Awake from sudden lethargy, Wang made it three-all by taking the third and fourth sets, 11-7, 11-9.

While trailing 1-3 in the decider, Wang had a lapse of concentration that allowed a string of score-rise in turns.

The former world top female paddler, who's now ranked third, was given a scare when Zhang came close to set point with 9-7 but Wang outlasted the 22-year-old Beijinger 12-10 to seal the match.

Source: Xinhua