World Collegiate Table-Tennis Championship News

Latest Updates:

Men's teams:
Quarter finals: China-Brazil 4:0, France-Belgium 4:1, Japan-Germany 4:1, China Taipei-Greece 4:1
Semifinals: China-France 4:0, China Taipei-Japan 4:0
Finals: China - China Taipei

Women's Teams:
Semifinals: China-France 3:0, Korea-Japan 3:1
Finals: China - Korea

(Chung's Notes: These news items are condensed from several articles. My comments are in italics.)

• The 13th World Collegiate TT Championships are being held in Shanghai, China, starting on October 25th. There are 13 men's and 10 women's teams in the team events. China, Chinese Taipei, France and Japan are the seeded teams in the 4 men's groups, and China and Japan are the 2 seeded teams in the women's groups. The men's team format is best out of 7 matches, and the women's best-of-5.
• China's men's team consists of Wang Liqin, Liu Guozheng, Zhang Yong and 2 others. (This is a team that is worthy of the Worlds.) The Chinese women's team has Sun Jin and Cheng Hongxia. They are expected to dominate the competition. China Taipei's men's team consists of Chiang Peng-Lung, Chang Yuan-Su and Chuan Chi-Yuan. This team should meet China in the finals.
• Besides the team competitions, there will be the other 5 individual championships, just like in the Worlds.
• China's men's team easily won over the German and Swiss teams in the first day of competiton, without dropping a game. China's women's team also beat the Korean and Hungarian teams, without losing a game.
• The participating countries are: Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Poland, Switzerland, China, China Macau and Chinese Taipei.
• The Chinese are taking this tournament quite seriously. One of the reasons is that this is a prelude to the University Games to be held in Beijing next year.
• The most contested events will probably be the men's singles and doubles. Chiang Peng-Lung is ranked 6th in the world, so he should get to the finals, assuming he does not play the top Chinese in the earlier rounds. He has never beaten Wang Liqin or Liu Guozheng. Chiang and Chang, however, are favorites to win the men's doubles.
• Big Balls are being used. That was a very late change. 38 mm balls were intended to be used, but ITTF issued a fairly strongly-worded recommendation to the organizing comittee, 5 days before the tournament, to change to the big balls. ITTF advised China to withdraw if the committee were to stay with the small ball. This caused the players a great deal of confusion, since they were prepared for the small ball.

Back To Index