News feed from ITTF

Germany’s Timo Boll and Christian Süss suffered a shock defeat in the preliminary stages of the Men’s Doubles event at the TMS Singapore Open on Thursday 5th June 2008.

The reigning European champions and silver medallists in 2005 at the Volkswagen 48th World Championships, they were beaten in five games by the Korean duo of Choi Hyun Jin and Lee Sang Su in their opening encounter.

Choi Hyun Jin and Lee Sang Su won 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-9.

The victory was the shock of the day and most certainly a major confidence boost for the Koreans, in their next duel they beat Sweden’s Jon Persson and Turkey’s Zeng Cem to book their place in the main draw.

Defeat for the highest rated pair but not for the next in line; however, it was close. Russia’s Fedor Kuzmin secured their place in the main draw but they had a struggle. In the vital qualification duel they beat Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Peng-Lung and Huang Sheng-Sheng by the very narrowest of five game margins.

Similarly in the preliminary stages of the Women’s Doubles event there was one result to cause a stir.

Germany’s Tanja Hain-Hofmann partnering Austria’s Liu Jia beat the powerful Chinese pairing of Guo Yan and Liu Shiwen, both players currently in the top twenty of the ITTF Women’s World Rankings.

Otherwise, the second day of play saw matters go very much according to plan.

Top seeds in the preliminary stage of the Women’s Doubles event, China’s Chang Chenchen and Li Xiaoxia came through successfully as did the second seeds Japan’s Haruna Fukuoka and Sayaka Hirano.

Meanwhile, in the singles events; Korea’s Kang Dong Hoon saved the day for Germany’s Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth. On the opening day the German had lost to Austria’s rising star, Stefen Fegerl, the Korean then beat Fegerl in the final group match. The end result was that on games ratio saw Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth finish in top spot with Stefen Fegerl in second place.

The top two players in each group in both the Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles events progressed to the main draw, for Kang Dong Hoon it was agonising elimination.

Eventual success for Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth and also places in the main draw for the highest world ranked players on duty in the qualification stage; Russia’s Igor Rubtsov, Germany’s Lars Hielscher and Korea’s Choi Hyun Jun duly booked their places in the next stage.

The top four ranked men all finished as group winners but for the ladies it was slightly different; Croatia’s Sandra Paovic, the second highest world ranked player on duty had to settle for second place with top spot going to Chinese Taiei’s Lim Chia-Hui who overcame Russia’s Anastasia Voronova to secure first place.

Problems for Sandra Paovic but not for Japan’s Reiko Hiura, the highest world ranked player in action. She finished her group in first place as did the third and fourth rated ladies; first place was the order of the day for Xian Yi Fang of France and Korea’s Moon Hyn Jung.