Chinese prove their dominancy by making a clean sweep: 2011 GAC Group World Championship
Chinese players made a clean sweep on the medal table at the 2011 GAC GROUP World Table Tennis Championships. They won 14 out of 20 medals, including the five gold medals. However, they were not able to beat their record of 17 medals which they clinched
during the World Championship at Yokohama, Japan in 2009.
The championship started on May 8, at the Ahoy Arena Rotterdam, Netherlands and concluded on Sunday May 15. Four finals were dominated by the Chinese players out of five, as both of the finalists in every final bout were from China.
The President of International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Adham Sharara, said, "Many things are moving in the right direction, except the part of the Chinese domination. There are two solutions. One is to bring China down, this is the wrong solution.
Second is to bring the others up, this is the right solution.”
The first final of the mega championship was played for the Mixed Doubles title on May 13. The two pairs to reach the finals were Shuai Hao and Mu Zi and Zhang Chao and Cao Zhen. Shuai and Mu won the opening game, but failed to maintain their pace and Zhan
and Cao nailed them down and won the next four games. The final score of the five games match was 7-11, 7-11, 9-11, 11-9 and 8-11.
The second final of the championship was played for the Men's Doubles title. It was the only final which was not all Chinese dominated match of the World Championship. The duo of Jung Young Sik and Kim Min Seok were the only two players who were lucky enough
to reach the finals of the Men's Doubles, but they were defeated by the Chinese duo of Ma Long and Xu Xin in a match of six games with a score-line of 11-2, 11-4, 6-11, 12-10, 11-13 and 11-7.
The third final of the championship was an all Chinese dominated Women's Singles final. Ding Ning defeated her compatriot, the top seeded player of the Women's Singles at the championship, Li Xiaoxia. Ding Ning extracted her revenge against Li Xiaoxia. Two
years back at Yokohama it was Li Xiaoxia who ended the progress of Ding Ning in the early rounds of the World Championship.
Ding Ning won the match with a score line of 12-10, 13-11, 11-9, 8-11, 8-11 and 11-7.
The Women's Doubles final was contested on the final day of the championship. Again it was an all Chinese final as both the pairs competing in the final were Chinese nationals. Li Xiaoxia joined forces with Guo Yue and won over their compatriot duo of Ding
Ning and Guo Yan in straight games. The finals score of the match was 11-8, 11-5, 13-11 and 11-8.
The most prestigious final of the championship was also dominated by the Chinese. The only non-Chinese player who managed to reach the semi-final stage of the Men's Singles was Timo Boll from Germany. Timo’s progress to the finals was ended up by the eventual
winner of the Men's title Zhang Jike.
In the finals Wang Hao was defeated by Zhang who reached the finals of the World Championship for the first time. The match extended to six games with a final score-line of 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11, 11-5 and 14-12.
The Chinese players proved that they are the best at the sport. Other countries have to work really hard to defeat the Chinese in the up-coming years. More skilled non-Chinese players are needed on the women's side. The next individual World Table Tennis
Championship will be held in 2013. The most important thing to watch out is to develop the sport in other countries of the world.
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