Timo Boll and Mizutani Jun prevent all Chinese quarter-final at World Table Tennis Championships
Timo Boll and Jun Mizutani prevented the quarter-finals of the Men's Singles into becoming a Chinese dominated affair during the round-of-16 of the GAC GROUP 2011 World Table Tennis Championships on May 13 at the Ahoy Arena, Netherlands.
In the fourth round of the main draws, Men's Singles Timo Boll from Germany won over his compatriot Dimitrij Ovtcharov in a match of six games. The final score of the match was 7-11, 6-11, 13-11, 15-13, 0-11, 8-11. Timo was on the Number One ranking in the
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men's Singles earlier this year, but he slipped down to second seed.
Timo kept the hopes of the European spectators alive to witness a player from the region progressing towards the ultimate goal of the finals in the World Championship. He is the only non-Asian player to reach the fourth round of the Men's Singles category.
Boll said, “Yes, playing against one of your colleagues is always difficult, I know the way he plays and vice versa, I made a good start, won the first two games but then he read my moves, he played very well and took the next two games.”
Jun Mizutani from Japan defeated the French player Adrien Mattenet in a match of five games 8-11, 11-4, 6-11, 7-11, 14-16. Along with these two players, six Chinese players booked a place in the quarter-finals, namely Zhang Jike, Wang Liqin, Chen Qi, Wang
Hao, Ma Lin and Ma Long.
The progress of Vladimir Samsonov from Belarus was ended by Chen Qi at the third round of Men's Singles event. Vladi was in no mood to give up but Chen sealed the match by winning the seventh decider game which remained levelled at 9-9. The Chinese player
won the next two games with the final score of the match was 11-6, 6-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-6 and 9-11.
Chen said, “I told myself at 10-8 to stay calm, I told myself I must not panic.”
There were three Korean players in the third round and all of them were defeated by the Chinese. Wang Hao defeated Ryu Seung Min in a close match with a score-line of 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-3 and 11-6. Ma Long beat Oh Sang Eun in straight games
11-2, 11-2, 11-5 and 11-7. Zhang Jike defeated Joo Se Hyuk in straight games 11-9, 11-1, 13-11 and 14-12.
The Chinese are the strongest contenders for the title but the only two players who can be a challenge them are Boll and Mizutani. It will be interesting to see how these two talented players can match-up against the brilliant and dominating Chinese players
at the Championships.
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