November 1, 2000

China-World Challenge Series

The Baoding Greatwall 2000-2001 International Tabletennis Match will officially begin on November 25 in Baoding city, Hebei province of China. The first match will pit Saive against China's Wang Liqin. There will also be a second match where a Chinese national team woman player will play against a male player. This series of matches is being promoted by China's Xu Shaofa, whose company earlier this year staged the Sweden-China rematch in Tianjian, China. Saive will miss the Swedish ITTF Pro-Tour to play in this match. The matches will run through December of 2001, and 8 players from Europe and Asia will play 8 players from China. The list of players include most of the top 20 players.

Chinese Players' Equipment

There seems to be a lot of interest on what the Chinese national team players use. The following are the links to the pages that show what the world champions used in Eindhoven.

Liu Guoliang: Note that he used TSP Spinpips on his forehand. On his backhand he used Mendo Energy from Stiga.

Kong Linghui: He used Butterfly Kong Linghui blade with Tackfire Special on both sides.

Wang Nan: She used Avalox P-500 blade with Friendship 729 rubbers (DHS sponge #22) on both sides.

Ma Lin: He used Yasaka Gatien blade, with Globe-999 rubber (DHS sponge #22) on his forehand and Nittaku JO-Waldner on his backhand.

Li Ju: She used a Butterfly Adolescen blade, with Ekrips on her backhand and Globe-999 (DHS sponge #22) on forehand.

All the sets shown are collectors items, with autographed posters, numbered certificates and numbered blades. They are available for sale, for approximately $250 each set.

Now that the big ball is in use, some of the players again have new equipment.

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