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Table Tennis Europe Challenges Chinese Domination14 September 2000SYDNEY ¡ª Modern table tennis is dominated by China, with the rest of the world attempting to break this stranglehold. Chinese players are common in the higher positions of world ranking list in both men's and women's singles. For European and other Asian players, the objective is clear: China will be the biggest obstacle to the finals. As shown at the Atlanta Games, where only one Chinese player reached the finals, China is not unbeatable. To try to break the Chinese dominance European nations organised a training camp in August for all qualifiers and put aside rivalry for one week to train together. In the Sydney Olympic games the favourites for the women's singles are Nan WANG (CHN) and Ju LI(CHN). Their main challengers are Jing CHEN (TPE), who reached the finals in Atlanta, and Ji Hye RYU (KOR). China could be challenged in the men's singles by Sweden, which beat China at the World Championships earlier this year. Swedish team members Jan-Ove WALDNER and Jorgen PERSSON overcame top Chinese players Linghui KONG (CHN) and defending Olympic Champion Guoliang LIU (CHN). Other possible European finalists include former world number one (now number three) Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR) and Jean-Philippe GATIEN (FRANCE), with Peng-Lung CHIANG (TPE) and Tael Soo KIM (KOR) remaining strong contenders. China are medal favourites in the women's and men's doubles. Possible women's doubles challengers include Jing CHEN and Jing XU (TPE) and Hungarians Csilla BATORFI and TOTH Krisztina. The men's doubles is a more open field, with the gold medal open to any of the top eight seeded pairs. There are 64 men and 64 women in each singles event. The 16 top seeded players will face the winners of a preliminary round consisting of 16 groups of three players. In the doubles the 8 top seeded pairs will play the winners of a group of 8 players decided by a preliminary round. Prior to the doubles preliminary round, there is a qualification round to decrease the number of competitors from 36 men's and 34 women's doubles to 32 for each event. In the men's doubles this "knockout" round is made up of the eight lowest ranked pairs and the four lowest ranked pairs in the women's doubles. Table Tennis dates back to 18th century England where it began as an indoor alternative to lawn tennis. It has developed into a major international sport practised by over 40 million competitive players and countless millions of amateurs. |
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