Table Tennis Players Seek Entrance to ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals
For the Men’s Doubles event, the Hong Kong pair of Jiang Tianyi and Tang Peng are very confident of getting an invitation to the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals after their magnificent success at the Men’s Doubles event at the Austrian Open in Wels. The Grand Finals
are to be held in Seoul, Korea’s capital city, from Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th December 2010. This couple is the major beneficiary from the recently closed Austrian Open. Although the two players will not be playing at the Polish Open,
the last international tournament of this year’s ITTF Pro Tour Programme, they have gained enough points to receive an invitation.
They were partners on six various occasions and have met the qualification requirement of competing in doubles in four ITTF Pro Tour tournaments. They have occupied the third place in the list of pairs eligible after the Germans Patrick Baum and Bastian
Steger and the young Japanese pair of Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa.
Similarly Timo Boll is also greatly benefited by the Austrian Open. Although he was defeated by Tiago Apolonia of Portugal in the Men’s Singles event in Wels, Austria, the German is assured of getting a place in the Grand Finals. However the qualification
criteria is to play at least six events in a year so at this moment, Timo Boll needs to compete in one more ITTF Pro Tour tournament in the year 2010.
He will meet this requirement by participating in Warsaw at the Polish Open where he is the no.1 seed. Only then he will be seen booking his ticket to Seoul. The scenario is the same for both Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Sweden’s Jens Lundqvist as both
have to enter the Polish Open to meet the necessary condition to appear in the Grand Finals. Both are seeded previously in Warsaw. On the same front, in the Women’s Singles event in Poland, Hungary’s Krisztina Toth, Spain’s Shen Yafei and Poland’s Li Qian
will qualify to book their places for Seoul.
The criteria for the qualification for the Singles events is that the top 16 men and women, which must include at least one player from the host nation and have played in six ITTF Pro Tour tournaments or on three continents, are capable of playing at Singles
event.
The host nation Korea has no problem in supplying the players for its representation. In the Men’s Singles event, Oh Sang Eun, Seo Hyun Deok, Jung Young Sik and Lee Sang Suang are all expected to enthral the crowd while in the Women’s Singles event, Kim
Kyung Ah and Park Mi Young, the backspin artistes will definitely show their skills in front of the home crowd. However, there are some players who are just below the line. If they show good performance in the Polish Open, they could gain an eleventh hour
invitation for the Grand Finals.
Likewise, for Li Jiao of Netherlands, a third round place in the Women’s Singles event in Poland may be enough, however if she progresses beyond this point and becomes no.1 seed, her chances of reaching the Grand Finals increase vastly. Similarly, Germany’s
Kristin Silbereisen, Japan’s Ishigaki, and Romania’s Elizabeta Samara are hoping to get there. But in Warsaw, they will have to go ahead to gain the points required.
For them, a quarter-final place is the minimum needed and that is not guaranteed. Moreover, in the under 21 Women’s Singles qualification, Elizabeta Samara is just one number below the line. But if she succeeds in becoming a No.3 seed in Poland, she will
have a more obvious chance of crossing the line. Considering her history, she has a great possibility of showing good performances in all the events.
In the Women’s Doubles, the partnership of Daniela Dodean stands in ninth place of the eligible pairs. They are the top seeds in Poland and by just being there, they will jump two places. The pairs immediately above them, Japan’s Sayaka Hirano and Reiko
Hiura and Singapore’s Sun Beibei and Yu Meng Yu will not show up in Warsaw.
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