Danish Open: Ma Lin wins again

Danish Open Review

Sunday, November 24, 2002

ITTF Press Releases

Guo’ first singles final

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. 14 year old GUO Yue (CHN) on Sunday afternoon is in her first Pro Tour Singles final. GUO has already won a Pro Tour title in doubles (Austrian Open) but on Sunday she can take her first singles title. However she faces compatriot ZHANG Yining, nr. 2 on the World Ranking, World Cup winner and much more experienced than GUO.

In the semi-final GUO beat another Chinese junior, LI Xiaoxia who is only few months older than GUO. GUO was leading all the way, 1-0 and 3-1. The small left hander was simply too smart for her “junior colleague” and though LI took another game there was never any doubt. GUO won 4-2. In the other semi-final ZHANG Yining once more steamrolled former compatriot, now Hong Kong player LIN Ling. Like in the semi-finals in Poland, LIN Ling was not able to win even one game.

End of the road for Dane

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. The semi-finals were the end of the road for Dane Michal MAZE in Men’s Singles. MAZE has done extremely well going to the last four, and he also qualified for the Grand Finals in Stockholm. Against Timo BOLL (GER) however he couldn’t do much.

MAZE started out as a lion and won the 1st game, but after that BOLL took full control of the match.
The next 2 games were close but with BOLL as the winner - and that was it for MAZE. In the 4th and the 5th game he only got 1 and 6 points.

Timo BOLL played fantastic and he is very difficult to beat, because he makes very few mistakes. BOLL’s service returns are very well placed which makes it difficult to take the initiative. I lost to a better player”, says Michael MAZE, who will now be the first Dane ever in the singles at the Pro Tour Grand Finals.

In the first semi-final top Chinese MA Lin once more beat Austrian Werner SCHLAGER. In the final at the Polish Open last week MA Lin won 4-0. The outcome was the same in Farum.

Two Japanese winners

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. Japanese Sayaka HIRANO took home an impressing victory in the U21 Women’s Singles at the Farum Danish Open.
In the final against WANG Yu (ITA) HIRANO only gave away one game, and there was never any doubt. HIRANO took the first 3 games, and after a bit of hesitation in the 4th, she took the match and the U21 title winning the 5th game 11-3.

In the U21 Men’s Singles the title also went to Japan. The talented Japanese, Ryusuke SAKAMOTO beat Jakub KOSOWSKI (POL) in a very close match. KOSOWSKI won the U21 event in Poland last week, and he also put up a good fight against SAKAMOTO.
KOSOWSKI even had the lead 2-0, but the match went all the way to the 7th game. Ryusuke SAKAMOTO won that 11-8.

Made for doubles

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. Korean OH Sang Eun seems to be “made for doubles”. Together with compatriot KIM Taek Soo he won the Grand Finals 2001, and earlier this year he formed a successful pair together with Swede Fredrik HAKANSSON.

On Sunday he was very close to winning the Farum Danish Open with a new partner – French lefthander Patrick CHILA.
The pair met the Chinese WANG Liqin/QIN Zhijian in the final. The Chinese last week won the Polish Open, and they started out as champions in Farum as well. They took the lead 3-1 and in the 5th they even had 8-4.

OH and CHILA however fought back. They took the game, and they also evened to 3-3. The 7th decisive game was close all the way, but at the end WANG and QIN took one more title, winning 11-8.

“It was a match at a very high level even though we were playing together for the first time. I can’t help being disappointed, it could have been fun to take a title like that”, says Patrick CHILA.

The final in Women’s Doubles was a rematch from the final in Poland – with the same outcome.

Polish Open Champions ZHANG Yining and LI Nan (CHN) can now also call themselves Farum Danish Open Champions.

ZHANG and LI beat the two 14 year old compatriots GUO Yue/LI Xiaoxia 4-2. This year GUO and LI have been in 5 Pro Tour finals – they lost them all.

Still a few steps missing

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. 14 year old GUO Yue (CHN) will have to wait for her first Pro Tour title in singles – and in the Women’s Singles final at the Farum Danish Open on Sunday, she also had to realize that there is still a few steps let to reach the very best.

“The very best” in Sunday’s final was nr. 2 on the World Ranking and recent World Cup winner ZHANG Yining (CHN).
ZHANG won the Polish Open last week and this week in Denmark she swept away all resistance as well.

In the final GUO took the 1st game, but as soon as ZHANG got her game going you saw the difference between a World Class player and a young upcoming player. ZHANG gave GUO only 6, 6, and 3 points. Then she took a break, and GUO got one more game, but in the 6th again there was no doubt. ZHANG won it 11-5 and too the second title in two weeks.

With the victory ZHANG Yining also finish the year as nr. 1 in the Pro Tour Standings.

Simply the best

Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 November 2002. He is on top of the World Ranking, he is on top of the Pro Tour Standings and on Sunday MA Lin once more proved that without any doubt he is the best player in the World at the moment.
MA took the Pro Tour Title in Poland last week, and again this week he has given a lesson to everybody he found at the other end of the table.

In the final in Men’s Singles on Sunday he beat the World Cup Winner Timo BOLL (GER) 4-0 - not wasting time at all.
BOLL only came close in the 3rd game when he had two game points at 10-8. MA however survived and took the game 12-10.

BOLL looked a bit tired, and he did not have many chances against the fast moving MA who totally dominated the match.

“MA Lin returns services very well, he keeps the balls extremely short – we are still looking for a “solution” to that”, says Timo BOLL’s coach Istvan KORPA.

“With MA it is very important to start the game well to put him under pressure, like Timo did in the 3rd game – but there is reason for MA being nr. 1 on the World Ranking. He is a top athlete”.

Read what others have to say:

timo will find himself
by cristi grigorov on 12/17/2002 4:15:00 AM

i guess that even MA lin won i think that timo boll will recover and prove once more that the lefthenders are the best players in the world and he will showw the timo boll he was in the world cup final when he beat kreanga

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