June 11, 2010
Star Performers in Moscow Lead World All Stars at Volkswagen Challenge
 Feng Tianwei will be seeking to repeat her Liebherr World Team Championship form in Shanghai Photo By: Rémy Gros |
Courtesy of ITTF |
Boll, absent from the event in 2009 owing to injury, is now back to the form that took him to the pinnacle of the World Ranking list in January 2003; while Feng Tianwei, who honed her skills in China before heading south in search of international competition, is enjoying halcyon days in her adopted country.
Center of Attention
Both excelled at the recent Liebherr World Team Championships in Moscow and were the center of attention on the final day.
Timo Boll was center stage for beating Ma Long in the opening exchange to give Germany first blood in the Men’s Team final against China; while Feng Tianwei’s wins over Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen wrote her name indelibly into table tennis folklore, as Singapore sensationally defeated China to grasp the Corbillon Cup.
Left Handers
Lining up alongside Timo Boll in the World Team will be two other left handers, a somewhat unusual scenario with 75% of the team being southpaws, Denmark’s Michael Maze and Japan’s Jun Mizutani.
Suffered Defeats
No doubt Timo Boll will be delighted that are on his side and not his adversaries. Similarly, he may have the same thoughts about the one right hander in the outfit, Korea’s Joo Se Hyuk.
In his most recent meetings against his three team colleagues in world ranking events he has experienced defeat.
At the Volkswagen Cup in Guangzhou he was beaten for the first time in his career by Joo Se Hyuk, while at the Liebherr European Championships in 2009 he suffered at the hands of Denmark’s Michael Maze and more recently, at the Liebherr World Team Championships in Moscow, he lost to Japan’s Jun Mizutani in the group stage.
Experience and Youth
Facing the World Team quartet will be a mixture of experience and youth.
Wang Hao, the reigning Men’s Singles World Champion and Wang Liqin, the man who has held that title an incredible three times, will be joined by the two rising stars of Chinese men’s table tennis.
Zhang Jike, who was selected alongside Ma Long and Ma Lin in the Chinese Men’s Team for the final in Moscow is joined by the dynamic Xu Xin, like Timo Boll, Jun Mizutani and Michael Maze, a left handed attacker but totally different.
Feng Tianwei’s Colleagues
Meanwhile, for the women; Feng Tianwei lines up alongside Korea’s Kim Kyung Ah, Japan’s Ai Fukuhara and Romania’s Daniela Dodean.
Unheralded
Kim Kyung Ah was a player in fine form at the recent Liebherr World Team Championships; to some extent her efforts went unheralded. Against Japan in the quarter-final Women’s Team duel, she remained unbeaten in a three-two defeat.
Leaving the arena she was visibly distraught, a caring arm around the shoulder from coach Hung Jung Hwa was the consoling factor.
Pleased Not Adversaries
Her departure from the arena was in stark contrast to that of Ai Fukuhara, who had beaten Park Mi Young to secure Japanese success, in Moscow earlier in the duel, Ai Fukuhara had lost to Kim Kyung Ah, a player against whom Feng Tianwei has experienced problems.
Both Ai Fukuhara and Feng Tianwei will be delighted that Kim Kyung Ah is in their team and both Feng Tianwei and Kim Kyung Ah will welcome Daniela Dodean with open arms.
At the Qatar Open earlier in the year in February, both were beaten by the Romania as she progressed to the Women’s Singles semi-finals.
World Junior Champions
Opposing the World Team will be three former World Junior champions and one losing semi-finalist.
Ding Ning won in Linz in 2005, Feng Yalan one year later in Cairo; while Wu Yang is the reigning World Junior champion, she succeeded in Cartagena de Indias in 2009; the odd one out is Li Xiaoxia.
She was only a mere semi-finalists.
In the first ever ITTF Junior World Championships in 2003 in Santiago, she was beaten by Li Qian (not Li Qian of Poland) who went on to win the title and currently plays for Shandong Luneng in the Chinese Super League.
Seeking Revenge
Certainly Ding Ning would welcome revenge against Feng Tianwei for her Moscow defeat while Li Xiaoxia is seeking to re-establish herself after an appendix operation with Feng Yalan, winner at this year’s German Open and Wu Yang in search of a permanent place amongst China’s very elite.
Junior Duel
Intriguing contests beckon and there is an innovative move, there will be a junior contest.
Korea’s Kim Min Seok and Italy’s Leonardo Mutti will face China’s Wi Jiaji and Yin Hang in the Boys’ Challenge while in the Girls’ Challenge, Korea’s Yang Ha Eun and Ariel Hsing of the U.S.A. will face Gu Yuting and Zhu Yuling.
Coaches
Coach for the Men’s World All Stars Team will be Germany’s Jörg Rosskops, for the Women, Romania’s Viorel Filimon, for the Boys’ and Girls’ Team Polan’s Leszek Kucharski.
The Chinese coaches are yet to be named.
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