March 23, 2010
German Open 2010 - Butterfly Review
Zhang Jike
Courtesy of Butterfly-World
Zhang successful, Boll optimistic and Dodean noticeable
Berlin. Top class sport, more than 10.000 spectators during the four day tournament and the dreaded Chinese superiority in the singles – that is the final resume` of the German Open 2010 at the last meeting of the world class players before the team WC in Moscow in May. The most successful Butterfly was the Chinese Zhang Jike, who won Bronze in the singles and Silver in the doubles event. Andrej Gacina earned himself a third place in the doubles.
Timo Boll
“It is not always important to climb up the winner’s podium of the best. I am quite satisfied with my achievement”, commented Germany’s superstar and number three seed, Timo Boll about his performance in Berlin, which finished this time after two consecutive victories with dropping out in the quarterfinal against the Chinese Chen Qi. Boll’s reason for being satisfied despite a 3:4 loss, where the defending champion didn’t use a 6:2 lead in the deciding set, is his special health situation during the tournament in the Max-Schmeling Hall. Boll came to the German Capital with a heavy cold after he had to take a long break of three weeks in February because of a muscle injury in his thigh and a wisdom tooth which had to be pulled out. Boll: “I wasn’t really feeling physically weak but I really missed a lot of practice in Berlin. The basic consistency just wasn’t there.”
Daniela Dodean
In point of view of these circumstances the achievements of the 29 year old were more than acceptable: “I came here without any expectations and was glad to survive the first round. But then I improved from round to round. You have to be top fit to beat a player like Chen Qi. I made too many easy mistakes’ which does happen a bit too often at the moment. In the end you have to pay for that. The Chinese are very consistent. They take the ball very early, what makes the game very fast. I am still not quite speedy enough at the moment.” Looking towards the team WC in Moscow in May Boll said: “I am still not there where I want to be. Everybody says I am a great talent but even the greatest talent needs practice. But if the upwards tendency continues like here at the German Open, I am optimistic for the WC.”
Michael Maze
The men’s event was dominated by the number one of the world ranking list Ma Long, who won the title in the singles and the doubles. The best Butterfly was Zhang Jike who failed against nobody less than World Champion Wang Hao in the semi finals. The Bronze in the singles was followed up by Silver in the doubles by the finalist of the Qatar Open. Zhang, who hopes for a place in China’s WC team, says about his performance: “Today I lost to the best player in the world. I hope that I learnt something from this game and will try to play my best table tennis the next time again.”
Petr Korbel
Totally dissatisfied was Michael Maze, who played for the first time after his foot injury in January in an important tournament. Denmark’s European champion was not a gentle Butterfly after an avoidable 3:4 loss in the round of the last eight and was furious: “3:4 against the World Champion doesn’t look so bad at first sight. But Wang Hao was so bad today. The problem was that I was even worse. Instead of using my chances I made easy mistakes in advantageous situations. That way I can’t win against any of the Chinese.” On the other hand Wang Hao was full of praise for his opponent: “That was a very difficult and even match between two even players.” Altogether seven Butterfly players reached the third round in Berlin and four of them proceeded to the following round – Petr Korbel (Czech), Oh Sang Eun (South Korea), Chuang Chih-Yuan (Taiwan) and Kaii Yoshida (Japan).
Oh Sang Eun
In the women’s event none of the Butterflies flew close to the medals. Just like during the Pro Tour tournaments in the Near East in February the Romanian Daniela Dodean was convincing at the German Open. A noticeable victory against the Singapore Chinese Li Jia Wei got the beautiful Qatar Open finalist, who attracted attention by her performance and her top fashionable Butterfly dress, to the round of the last sixteen, where she was stopped by the number six in the world and later finalist Ding Ning. The winner of the tournament became a Chinese nobody expected before: Feng Yalan. The 20 year old and only 155cm tall junior World Champion from 2006 played her first Pro Tour tournament in her career and went from the qualifying groups right up to winning the titles in the women’s single and the U21 event. Feng Yalan is not registered on the world ranking list yet. That will change quickly following the ITTF notification in April.
Daniela Dodean
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