March 18, 2010
German Open in Berlin
Michael Maze
Courtesy of Butterfly-World
Butterflies are challenging top seeded Chinese in the fight for the titles
Very strong participants make the German Open in Berlin with 172.00 Dollars price money shine already before the first balls are hit. China’s favorite aces want to make it difficult for the defending champion Timo Boll, the winner of the tournaments 2008 (Berlin) and 2009 (Bremen), to win his third title in a row. Apart from Butterfly star Boll there are some more Butterflies, who can hope for the winning check of 20.000 Dollars for the singles title, among them China’s rising star Zhang Jike, the Danish European Champion Michael Maze and Oh Sang Eun the former number 14 of the world ranking list from South Korea.
Each of these four top Butterflies is able to make life difficult for the two top seeded players from China, the number one of the world ranking list, Ma Long and World Champion Wang Hao, who take a run up to their first Pro – Tour title in 2010. Behind those two, the number three seed, Boll is careful with his ambitions in the German capital: “After I was forced to take a break in February, I have not yet reached 100 percent of my form. I will try everything but it is necessary to look at the tournament as a build up.” Boll, who is ranked number four in the world, would be the first player in the history of the ITTF Pro Tour who could win the same tournament three times in a row.
If you know the ambitious German, you will know that he will do everything possible despite the lack of training for another success in front of the home crowd. Apart from Boll’s title aspirations many are also looking at the new young star Zhang Jike of whom many experts think that he might be a strong candidate to complete the five men strong team of Olympic Champion China for the WC. A Success in Berlin would strengthen the chances of the finalist of the Qatar Open in a duel against the recently more successful Kuwait Open winner Xu Xin. The number three of the WC in 2005, Michael Maze and Oh Sang Eun also belong to those athletes, who are capable to win against China’s aces in Berlin if they are in top form. Members of the extended circle of medal candidates with a butterfly shirt are the German Open finalist of 2008, Chuang Chih-Yuan (Taiwan) as well as the English Open finalist Seiya Kishikawa and his Japanese national team mate Kaii Yoshida.
In the women’s event it looks a lot more difficult for Butterfly partners to get close to the medal ranks. In the absence of the number one of the world ranking list, Butterfly Liu Shiwen (China), defense specialist Viktoria Pavlovich (White Russia), the number three of the Europe Top 12 Krisztina Toth (Hungary), the semi finalist of the Qatar Open, Daniela Dodean (Romania), Tamara Boros (Croatia) and Nikoleta Stefanova (Italy) are only outsiders against the aces of China and South Korea.
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