Top Seeds Make Big Steps to Reach the Semis

With more than 6,000 spectators, it has become very hot in the competition hall at the first day of the table tennis events. The Peking University Gymnasium was full with a lot of media coming to cover one of the most popular sports in China.

China’s Teams Outstanding
Both Chinese teams are on the way to reach the last four of the first table tennis team event at Olympics. The women won their two competitions with 3-0 against Croatia in the opening match and versus the Dominican Republic in the evening session. They will face Austria tomorrow.

After facing Australia in the morning session, the Chinese men’s team will play tomorrow against Austria too. Werner SCHLAGER and his colleagues will try to contest the Chinese ascendancy. Against WANG Hao, MA Lin and WANG Liqin, Greece couldn’t avoid the defeat today (3-0). The match between China and Greece was very spectacular with the two Greek choppers namely Ntaniel TSIOKAS and Panagiotis GIONIS.

“MA Lin’s (CHN) opponent (GIONIS) has a very strange style but MA Lin didn’t give him any chance”, said LIU Guoliang, the Chinese coach. “WANG Hao did it better at crucial balls than KREANGA. WANG Liqin made more mistakes at the beginning because the three players’ styles are different from one another; this has caused us a headache, but we can see that we are quick to adapt.”

Poland’s Partyka Well Desired in Beijing
Germany’s women’s dream of a medal has receded into the distance. In the Group C, they lost 3-0 against the young Romanian team. The Germans now have to beat Hong Kong China and Poland tomorrow to keep up the chance to proceed.


In the Group D, there are also two teams competing for the first place that is necessary to compete for gold and silver. Korea and Japan won 3-0 respectively against Spain and Poland. Afterwards Natalia PARTYKA from Poland stood more than 30 minutes in the mixed zone, giving interviews. She is the only table tennis player qualified for the Olympics and Paralympics. She only lost in the fifth game against TIE Yana.

”We have played PARTYKA before and she did not play so well. Her attacks today were excellent. Even though she has an amputated right arm, she was playing better than an average player”, said TIE about her opponent. Singapore is leading the Women’s Group B with two victories against USA and Nigeria. Losing against the United States, the Dutch women’s team has the possibility to reach the first place with an exploit against Singapore.

Korea Wins in Spite of Ryu’s Hiccup
In the Men’s Group B, there was a close competition between Croatia and Germany but finally Germany won 3-0. Timo BOLL and friends, seeded number 2 overall, are on the right way to reach the last four teams. After playing Canada in the morning, the squad of German coach Richard PRAUSE will have to ensure its good position against Singapore at 14:30 tomorrow.

In the Group C, Korea has two victories after beating Sweden and Brazil 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. Korea’s reigning Olympic champion RYU Seung Min: "I think every match is always very hard, particularly the first round but today we had lots of confidence against the Swedish team so we played quite well. I think we can do this again in our next game." But in the second competition against Brazil, it was RYU, who lost a match. It was a 0-3 against Thiago MONTEIRO.

In the Group D, Russia and Nigeria now have no more chance to reach the first or second place and to aim for a medal. These final positions will be decided tomorrow in the match between Japan and Hong Kong China