Saturday, August 1, 2009
11:41 PM
ITTF Pro Tour Korea Open - Singaporeans to be Wary of Upsets
The absence of top players from the dominant China has risen the chances for our female paddlers to sweep the Gold Medals in all the Women's Events. In the Women's Singles Event, Feng Tianwei is the Top Seed. She is further supported by 4th Seed Wang Yue Gu, as well as the 11th and 13th Seed, Yu Meng Yu and Sun Bei Bei. However, our paddlers have to be very cautious as some of the world's best choppers Kim Kyung Ah and Park Mi Young will be playing on home ground. They will definately be aiming to cause an upset especially when our players are weak against their style of play. Although China may not have sent any of their World Top 6 players, the paddlers from the Chinese 2nd team are not to be trifled with. The Chinese camp is represented by a group of Asian Junior Champions. Che Xiaoxi was part of the team which won the Girls' Team Event in the Asian Junior Championships in Singapore last year. In the recently concluded Asian Junior Championships in India, Che Xiaoxi was once again the winner. She was also the runner up in the Junior Girls' Doubles and Singles Event. Also in the Champion team of this year's Asian Junior Championships are Zhang Qiang and Shen Dandan. Meanwhile local teenager Sim Kai Xin Zena will be joining the Chinese, creating upsets.

In the Men's Singles Event, Olympic Champions Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Wang Hao and Chen Qi will also be giving the Pro Tour a miss. Leading the team is World No. 9, Hao Shuai. His other teammates Qiu Yike, Lei Zhenhua, Xu Hui and Xu Ruifeng will have to play the qualification stage. Despite not having a World Ranking, these players can be compared to those with ranking less than 50. They lost their World ranking as they have been missing international competition for a long time. Gao Ning, Yang Zi, Ma Liang, Liu Zhong Ze and Pang Xue Jie will be trying their best to improve their world ranking. Our male paddlers' ranking has dropped drastically after the Beijing Olympics. Gao Ning, who was once in the Top 10, is now out of the Top 20 range. Yang Zi, who has always been in the Top 40 Range is now out of the Top 50 ranking.




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