PARIS, 23 May 2003 — All China’s main hopes for gold at the table tennis world championships marched through yesterday’s action unscathed, scattering many a broken European dream in their wake.
There was third round success in the men’s singles for reigning men’s champion Wang Liqin, Olympic title holder Kong Linghui, world number two Ma Lin and Qiu Yike, the man who ousted Timo Boll on Wednesday.
Kong brushed aside Greek Ntaniel Tsiokas, while inspired by his unscripted win over Boll Qiu followed up with a 4-1 defeat of Austrian Kostadin Lengerov.
Ma Lin, finalist in 1999, employed his unusual variant of the pen-holder grip to get the better of Japan’s Toshio Tasaki.
Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive had the crowd on their feet as he fought like a man possessed against Wang Liqin, eventually going down 4-2.
In the women’s singles China’s top three all made it safely into the next round, yet it was not all one way traffic as Romania’s Otilia Badescu walked off with a sizable scalp in China’s Guo Yan, the world number ten.
And all is not lost for the host continent for while Boll, the tournament favorite, may be history it is now the formidable figure of Vladamir Samsonov who has the weight of expectation on his broad shoulders.
The tall Belarussian looked sharp and hungry as he brushed aside Daniel Gorak, dropping his first set of the week.
The 25-year-old who plays for Belgian club Charleroi has a fourth round match-up against Greek Kalinokos Kreanga.
In all, five Chinese figure in the fourth round. Accompanying this quintet were the Korean trio Oh Sang-Eun, who saw off Russian Feder Kuzmin, Kim Taek-Son, who beat Czech Petr Korbel, and Joo Se-Hyuk.
The practice of Chinese players adopting another country is widespread, yet when over the public address system the match between “German Lars Hielscher and ‘Austrian’ Chen Weixing” was announced a good natured chuckle rippled around the arena. Weixing won.
Earlier, European women’s singles champion Badescu employed guile and guts to shock Guo.
The 32nd seed next meets Europe’s highest ranked player here this week, Croat Tamara Boros, who beat Japan’s An Konishi.
Boros, throwing her service almost impossibly high at times right into the Bercy rafters, clenched her fist when leveling her match at 2-2.
Belarus Viktoria Pavlovich faces China’s number three seed Niu Janfreng after a hard fought seven setter against Lithuania’s Ruta Budiene-Garkauskaite.
Top seed Zhang Yining crushed Germany’s Nicole Struse. Zhang ominously has yet to drop a set.
The Japanese starlet Ai Fukuhara is on course to play her in the quarterfinals if she beats Korea’s Lee Eun-Sil next.
