German Timo Boll prevents all Chinese Men’s Singles semi-finals – World Table Tennis Championships
Timo Boll from Germany was the only player who prevented all Chinese semi-finals at the World Table Tennis Championships.
The fourth round of the Men’s Singles event was played at the Ahoy Arena Rotterdam, Netherlands on the evening of May 14, 2011.
The spectators at the arena applauded every move of the German player. The match was attended by 8,000 spectators and Timo Boll showed an awesome performance and only let his opponent win a single game.
Timo Boll beat China’s Chen Qi in five games with a score line of 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7 and 11-3. The crowd was supporting Boll as it wanted him to reach the finals of the championships and challenge the other three Chinese who have qualified for the final
four stage of the event. Timo is the only hope that can prevent the Chinese from making a clean sweep at the championship.
Qi on his defeat said, “I became too passive after the second game, Timo Boll is a dangerous opponent and his heavy topspin play was difficult to answer but today I didn’t serve that well and that made it hard for me to dominate the game.”
Chen Qi caused an upset in the round of 16 he won over Vladimir Samsonov from Belarus in a match that remained levelled until the sixth game. The final decider game was won by the Chen Qi with a score line of 11-6, 6-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-6 and 9-11.
Timo lost in the finals of the Volkswagen Cup earlier in 2011. He was defeated by the Chinese legendary player Wang Hao in the finals in a match of six games.
In the round of 16 Timo beat his compatriot Ovtcharov Dimitrij in a match of six games.
He is the only non-Chinese player to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship. Jun Mizutani from Japan who managed to reach the quarter-finals was the other player. Jun’s progress was ended by Wang Hao in straight games.
Timo on his victory said, “One of the major factors in the match was that I was able to return his service well, Against Chen Qi, that is always a problem but today returning service was not as difficult as in the past; also, I must thank the crowd, there
were many Germans here supporting me and also the Dutch supported me, thank you!”
Timo will be fighting Zhang Jike from China who has made his debut in the world championship in the semi-finals. He will be hoping for a place in the grand finals.
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