ITTF Pro Tour: Austrian Open 2010- Women’s Singles Gold Grabbed by Guo Yue And Men’s Singles Gold Bagged by Tiago Apolonia
Guo Yue, the 22 year old Chinese player won the Women’s Singles title at the Austrian Open in the city of Wels on Sunday 24th October, 2010. She was crowned the world champion in Zagreb in 2007. In this tournament of ITTF Pro-Tour, she achieved
this victory over the other Chinese finalist, the 18 year old Wu Yang. It was her 12th Women’s Singles ITTF Pro-Tour title including the grand finals and her second in 2010. In February, she won at the Qatar Open conducted in Doha to end a race
of five consecutive finals where she had ended up at runners up position.
Guo Yue reached the final by beating Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yi-Hua in the quarter finals and a colleague Li Xiaoxia in the semi finals, as she was made to face and fight the top prize by her younger opponent. Exceptionally good played six games were the
verdict to Guo Yue’s success and the end result was Guo Yue succeeding with 11-3, 9-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-4, 13-11. Guo Yue has the marvellous ability to combat the defensive style of the play. She has an enormous experience at the international level. Both these
facts played immense role in her success and proved to be invaluable assets in the final.
It is the ninth year of Guo Yue’s career that she is competing on the ITTF Pro Tour. Although she is only 22 year old, she is one of the most experienced players of the world. She made her debut on the ITTF Pro Tour on Wednesday 23rd January,
2002 when she was only 13 years old. In that tournament, she reached the semi final stage of Women’s Singles event eventually losing to the runner up Singapore’s Li Jiawei. The winner of that occasion was the Chinese penholder, Li Nan. Moreover, she proved
her ability and worth in 2010 against the defensive art. At the quarter final stage, she defeated Germany’s splendid defender, Jie Schopp. She got a bronze medal in the Women’s Singles event. She accompanied 15 year old Fan Ying beating their opponents Li
Nan and Jiang Huajun in the final of doubles. Their adversaries made an equally perfect pair but they were overcome by the younger players. That magnificent event was also organized in the city of Wels. It was the Remus Austrian Open 2002. In 2010, it was
a happy and joyous return to Austria for Guo Yue.
Turning to Men’s Singles event, the champion had been decided on Sunday 24th October, 2010. People say that thirteen is an unlucky number but for Tiago Apolonia, his belief is exactly opposite. Seeded no.13, he won the Men’s singles title at the
Austrian Open in Wels. He achieved this win over the top seed and the great defending champion Timo Boll from Germany at the final hurdle. Tiago Apolonia managed to recover from a three games loss to one to beat Timo Boll by the small margin of 10-12, 11-8,
3-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6.
‘Win a close match and confidence grows’ is a clichéd statement. It was never more obvious than in this case. It was a sensational success for Tiago Apolonia, a splendid recovery to make for his deficit but not very unexpected, as we have a look at his first
match of the tournament. Against Emmanuel Lebesson of France, he recovered from the very bottom of defeat and won the match. Timo Boll had been the winner of Austrian Open Men’s singles event three times. This time he had to stay at the second step of the
medal podium. The man who had never progressed beyond the third round of Men’s Singles event on the ITTF Pro Tour this time secured the top step. No doubt, he was the most worthy champion and the most worthy winner of this event.
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