Hong Kong and Austria Can Still Win the Bronze Medal

Austria’s and Hong Kong China’s male players will have to wait until tomorrow evening to know their opponents. Both teams passed their first hurdle on the way to the bronze medal. Austria will face on Sunday the loser of the contest between Germany and Japan while Hong Kong China will play against either China or Korea Republic.

One Asian Duel…
At 09:00 a.m. this morning the second round started to with four teams focused on the bronze medal. These four teams that finished second in their respective groups have to win twice to play the bronze medal contest.

Hong Kong China against Chinese Taipei was the Asian duel that Hong Kong China won relatively easy in spite of the good resistance of de CHIANG Peng-Lung against LI Ching (13-11 in the fifth game).

“I started a little bit slow and my opponent was very strong, so I tried to take the initiative”, said LI Ching (HKG) after the contest. “I focused on how to win the point and how to figure out the direction of the balls, and attacked hard to win points. It was a match between penholders. Both of us wanted to take the initiative and win points by attacking. So the mental state was more important. When I was up 10-8 in the third game, I was a little careless, so I lost that one. Luckily, I kept my mind on the ball and calmed down.”

For the trainer CHAN Kong Wah (HKG), it was the tactic choice that allowed to take the victory. ”CHUAN Chih-Yuan (TPE) beat RYU Seung Min (KOR) yesterday, so we made special arrangements so that LI Ching (HKG) avoided CHUAN Chi-Yuan. It proved successful.”

…and One European Duel
The other contest was more indecisive between the Croats and the Austrians but only from the 3rd match. After the fast victories of Werner SCHLAGER (AUT) over TAN Ruiwu (CRO) and CHEN Weixing (AUT) over Zoran PRIMORAC (CRO), Croatia managed to win the doubles and to boost the contest.

The Austrian pair consisted of CHEN and Robert GARDOS (AUT) lost in the decisive fifth game 10-12 against GACINA and TAN (CRO). SCHLAGER had to come back to the table to compete against Andrej GACINA (CRO), who contested his first singles match in Beijing. ”It was a very close contest. They were fighting with good skills. Andrej GACINA (CRO) is a good fighter and has a bright future,” said Ferenc KARSAI, the coach from Austria very satisfied with SCHLAGER’s (3-1) success synonym of the qualification for the following tour.