World Champion but No Seeded Place for Swedish Star

World Champion but No Seeded Place for Swedish Star

Lausanne-Switzerland, June 6, 2012: Crowned World champion in 1991, a host of international titles to his credit; nevertheless, Sweden’s Jrgen PERSSON is not amongst the 32 seeded players in the Men’s Singles event at the GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour Japan Open.

In Kobe, he must compete on the first day of play, Wednesday 6th June, in the qualification stage of proceedings.

However, the 46 year old is not alone; other notable names appear in the qualification stage.

The Czech Republic’s Petr KORBEL, who finished in fourth place in the Men’s Singles event at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games and Russia’s Fedor KUZMIN, the winner in 2005 at the Slovenian Open in Velenje, also appear in the initial phase of the Men’s Singles event.

Similarly, in the first stage of the Women’s Singles event, there are names to note.

Korea’s MOON Hyun Jung, who sensationally ended the reign of China’s Wang Nan at the Volkswagen 48th World Championships in Shanghai in 2005 is in action, as is her colleague, DANG Yeseo, a member of Korea’s bronze medal winning Women’s Team at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Also, Austria’s LIU Jia, the European champion in 2005 and Women’s Singles winner on the ITTF Pro Tour in Brazil in 2004, must pass the qualification test.

Two days of qualification matches; then on Friday 8th June, the main draw commences.

Top seed in the Men’s Singles event is Germany’s Timo BOLL, making his first Tour appearance of the year; he is followed by the host nation’s Jun MIZUTANI, Korea’s JOO Saehyuk and Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan.

Meanwhile, in the Women’s Singles event the top seed is the host nation’s Kasumi ISHIKAWA with Singapore’s WANG Yuegu and FENG Tianwei the next in line and Ai FUKUHARA, also from Japan, completing the top four.

Singapore heads the Men’s Doubles; YANG Zi and ZHAN Jian are the top seeds with GAO Ning and LI Hu being the second seeds.

Similar to the Women’s Singles event, Japan is at the top of the list. Hiroko FUJII and Misako WAKAMIYA occupy the no.1 seeded spot with Singapore’s LI Jiawei and WANG Yuegu the next on the list.

Also, in the Under 21 Women’s Singles event, the name of Kasumi ISHIKAWA is in pole position, Korea’s YANG Ha Eun is the no.2 seed; whilst in the Under 21 Men’s Singles competition, Chinese Taipei’s CHEN Chien-An is the top seed followed by Korea’s JUNG Young Sik.

A total prize fund of US$ 120,400 is on offer; the winners of the Men’s and Women’s Singles events each pocket US$ 14,000.

Traditional Name Dominates but New Name Steals the Show

Australia dominated proceedings on the third day of play, Tuesday 5th June 2012, at the ITTF-Oceania Championships in Suva, Fiji. They captured three of the four team titles on offer; they won the Men’s and Women’s Team events in addition to securing the Youth Men’s Team crown.

The one top prize to escape the hands of the green and gold came in the Youth Women’s Team competition. Against expectations the title was won by Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, situated in the South Pacific Ocean with just over 9,000 inhabitants, and the second least populated country in the world after the Vatican City.
Nauru was playing in its first ever Oceania Table Tennis Championships and was participating as a direct result of the efforts of the extensive Development Programmes of the International Table Tennis Federation and the Oceania Table Tennis Federation.

Represented by Oxyna GOBURE, Tania GUTTERSBERGER and Remmah TSITI; Naura beat the Fiji outfit of Sally YEE, Litiana SERU and Serafina GRUNDLER in the final.

However, in the remaining events there was no stopping Australia. Selecting from a squad of Robbie FRANK, William HENZELL, David POWELL and Kane TOWNSEND, the Australian men proved imperious, as did their female counterparts JIAN Fang Lay, MIAO Miao and TAN Zhenhua.

Neither team surrendered a single individual match; in the group stage, where all matches were played, the score of five-nil was posted on every occasion. In the second stage, where fixtures stopped when an unassailable lead was established, they won every contest three-nil.

The men defeated the New Caledonian trio of Fabian LAI VAN, Stephane GILABERT and Adrian CERVEAUX at the semi-final stage, before accounting for the New Zealand outfit formed by John CORDUE, Phillp XIAO and Kevin WU in the final.

Meanwhile, the women concluded the group matches with victory over the Fijian team of Tania GUTTERSBERGER, Harvi YEE and Litiana SERU, before the title was secured by defeating the New Zealand outfit of Jessica MACASKILL, Sarah HER-LEE and Natalie PATTERSON.

Titles as predicted but arguably winning the Youth Men’s Team crown was somewhat of a surprise. In the group stage New Zealand had beaten Australia four-one with Kane TOWNSEND being the only Australian winner. In the final, he was the star and reversed fortunes. Australia posted a three-two win to clinch the title.

He beat Phillip XIAO and Kevin WU to prove the mainstay of victory, with David POWELL also overcoming Kevin WU. The two wins for New Zealand came in the third and fourth matches of the duel as a revival was mounted. Thom NGUYEN accounted for Dillon CATHCART and Phillip XIAO overcame David POWELL. The individual events commence on Wednesday 6th June and conclude on Friday 8th June 2012. Photo: Rmy Gros

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