DOHA, 3 March 2004 — The formbook proved as reliable as the Gulf sunshine on the second day of the world table tennis team championships here yesterday with China turning up the heat on their rivals.
China’s men have yet to lose a game, Monday’s whitewash of France being followed by an identical scoreline against Japan in Group A in the second batch of round robin ties.
Wang Liqin dropped two sets on his way to a 3-2 win over Ryu Yuzava but from then on the No. 10 seeds never got a look in as Olympic champion Kong Linghui and Wang Hao wrapped up the match. China next faced Italy in the third round and the Europeans approached their meeting with the sport’s superpower in fine fettle after a titanic 3-2 win over France.
But their good fortune ended there as they capitulated tamely 3-0 in the face of the tiger, despite the stoic Massimiliano Mondello, who managed to prize two sets off Liu Guozheng.
Third seeds South Korea had a demanding second round date against Austria but after world champion Werner Schlager fell to Ryu Seung Min and again to Oh Sang Eun the Austrians were never going to deny the team from Asia.
The Koreans then had a much easier time against France, who without their best player Jean-Philippe Gatien this week failed to break the Korean wall, while Austria bounced back with a 3-2 win over Japan. Germany are just shading Group B from Taiwan after wins against Sweden and Russia, who had earlier been beaten by the Taiwanese.
Among the women China, marshalled by world and Olympic champion Wang Nan, have like their male compatriots still to drop a game after executing their third 3-0 win of the week, Taiwan going the same way as Germany and Russia.
South Korea, the third seeds, are also unbeaten, defeating Germany 3-1 following their earlier 3-0 rout of Singapore to lie second in Group A.
Second seeds Hong Kong top Group B after edging Belarus and Italy while Japan, favorites to take the all-important runner-up spot, beat Romania 3-2 thanks to some artful work at the table by the diminutive Ai Fukuhara and later Hungary.
Hong Kong’s strong showing is in no small part due to the efforts of their best player Tie Yana. But the world No. 6, who was born in mainland China but won gold for Hong Kong at the 2002 Asian Games, is in danger of missing out on representing Hong Kong at the Olympics.
She and all the other non-native Hong Kong players could be ruled ineligible to represent the former British colony under an Olympic rule stipulating that competitors must carry the passport of the country they are representing.
China have no such concerns and are comfortably in control of their group, although Wang found herself in trouble in the opening set against Russia’s Galina Melnik. Melnik shot out of the blocks, racing to a 6-0 lead before Wang leveled, only for Melnik to go on and take the opening set. But using her killer top spin to good effect Wang soon extinguished the danger, taking the next three sets.
Melnik sighed: “She’s such a good player, when you play her you are always under pressure, you’re playing at your limit and that’s when you make mistakes.”
Three teams meanwhile noticeable by their absence at the championships are Haiti, Scotland and England. Haiti’s last minute decision not to travel is entirely understandable given the political turmoil in the country in recent weeks.
Scotland’s absence was blamed on security concerns about traveling to the Gulf state following the assassination of former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha last month.
The Scots’ no-show disappointed Helen Elliot Hamilton, the feisty octogenarian president of the Scottish Table Tennis Federation.
“I’m upset that they decided not to come,” she said at the championship venue in the Doha Exhibition Center. England aren’t here for the simple reason they couldn’t get together a men’s team for the first time since London hosted the inaugural championships in 1926.
“Mathew Syed’s pursuing other avenues nowadays and a couple of the potential players were considered too young,” a close follower of the English ping pong scene said.
