April 21, 2009
Canada's 2009 National Team Challenge
 Pradeeban Peter-Paul Achieves Top Spot on Canada's Men's National Team |
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Courtesy of CTTA |
In the absence of two of Canada's top 8 ranked players - Andre Ho and Shen Qiang - on the Men's side the Quarter Finals produced the expected match-ups.
Pradeeban Peter-Paul, fresh from his wins at the Laval Open and the New York Open faced Ling-Kun Yang. Yang took advantage of Peter-Paul's slow start and jumped ahead 2 games to none, 12-10, 11-9. Pradeeban came back to 2-2 with two solid games - 11-4, 11-4. It was at this time that Ling Kun turned up the speed a notch and it seemed that he could not miss - 11-9, and 10-7 Ling Kun - three match points for the young Montrealer. Peter-Paul kept a clear head and took five points in a row to even the match. Game 5 saw the veteran in control, winning the game at 11-6.
Arnaud Roche-Nadon, who made the quarters by upsetting Terry Zhang (MB) was no match for Xavier Therien who's eventual third place finish marks his return from a period of injury and adjustment to new equipment.
Another cliff-hanger was fought between Jiang Yang and Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi. The Montreal youngster jumped ahead to a 3-1 lead before Kamkar-Parsi turned the match around with 12-10, 11-4 games. In game 7, it took Kamkar-Parsi six match points to emerge a winner - 17-15 in the seventh.
For Pierre-Luc Hinse, the number two seed of the competition, the National Team Challenge marked the first competition after a lengthy rehabilitation process due to injuries. In his first challenging match in several months, Hinse faced Youngster Pierre-Luc Theriault. The motivated and spirited youngster jumped ahead by a score of 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-7) - Game 4 marked the turnaround for Hinse. He seemed to find his groove, jumped into the driver's seat and ran out the match with 4 well-played games.
The rest of the tournament continued with high quality matches, but less drama. Peter-Paul had to raise his level to overcome a highly concentrated and well-playing Xavier Therien, while Pierre-Luc Hinse remained in control in his win over Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi - the latter had to default his match due to a nagging knee injury he had sustained a week earlier at the Laval Open.
The final between Peter-Paul and Hinse saw some exchanges of the highest quality, but Peter-Paul made it clear that he is Canada's top player, and that he has his sights set on a good result at this month's World Championships in Yokohama, Japan and next month's Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Men's Final Standings:
1 - Pradeeban Peter-Paul (ON)
2 - Pierre-Luc Hinse (QC)
3 - Xavier Therien (QC)
4 - Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi (ON)
5 - Ling Kun Yang (QC)
6 - Yang Jiang (QC)
7 - Pierre-Luc Theriault (QC)
8 - Arnaud Roache Nadon (QC)
9 - Maxime Surprenant (QC)
10-Bryan Michaud (QC)
11-Tony Liu (BC)
12-Terry Zhang (MB)
Women's Final Standings:
1 - Sara Yuen (ON)
2 - Stephanie Yuen (ON)
3 - Ioulia Degtiar (AB)
4 - Marie-Andrée Levesque (QC)
5 - Shannon Zheng (ON)
6 - Shirley Fu (BC)
7 - Anqi Luo (ON)
8 - Ly Li Quan (QC)
9 - Emanuelle Lavoie (QC)
10-Lolo Zhao (ON)
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