OLYMPICS/ Team china
Table tennis clean-sweep likely at Games
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-23 21:15
YANGZHOU -- Chinese table tennis chief Xu Yinsheng said the hosts will "very likely" clean-sweep all four gold medals of the sport at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Attending the Asian championships in the eastern city of Yangzhou, the Chinese Table Tennis Association president noted the Chinese team are good enough to sweep the board but warned about home-court advantage turning to too much pressure.
"It's very likely that China will sweep the four golds," the former International Table Tennis Federation president said on Saturday. "I am only worried about home advantage is turning into a double-edged sword."
China had swept the table tennis titles in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. It missed the men's singles and women's doubles in the sport's Olympic debut in 1988 and lost the men's singles in 1992 and 2004.
The 2008 Olympic table tennis competition features the men's and women's singles events, and two team events which take place of the doubles.
In a scale of difficulty in winning golds, Xu put the men's singles first, followed by men's team, women's team and women's singles.
"Chinese women are odds-on favorites for the singles title, while the men's singles is the most difficult," said the 70-year-old Xu.
Xu, himself a former world champion, named a few players he adores.
"Wang Liqin is very strong and he has a good attitude to the sport," said Xu. "His weakness is inability to adapt to changes on the court."
Chinese Wang, three-time world champion, is currently ranked third in the world, after teammates Ma Lin and Wang Hao.
Ma, four-time World Cup holder, lost his first world championship final in 1999 to Liu Guoliang, now head coach of the Chinese men's team. He lost the 2005 and 2007 finals, both to Wang Liqin.
"I admire Ma Lin's play," said Xu. "He is very clever and always puts returns on places where his rival finds difficult to cope with."
Xu, who had played a penhold fast attack style, said Wang Hao's game represents the future of Chinese penholders.
Wang Hao, who uses the reverse side of the bat for backhand topspin, lost the men's singles gold in his debutant Olympics in 2004, to South Korean Ryu Seung Min.
Xu named Ryu and German Timo Boll as major threats to China's 2008 campaign.
"Ryu is a fighter and Boll is nearly perfect technically," he said.
The Chinese table tennis boss listed Chinese Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Guo Yue as the top women's players.
"Zhang is level-headed and technically solid, Wang Nan has immense battle experience, Guo Yue is aggressive and hungry."
|
