World Cup News: 1st Day
Latest News: Kong, Waldner and Samsonov have all lost 2 matches,
and are out of the tournament, barring any miracle. Wang Liqin, Ma Lin,
Persson, and Chiang are all 2-0, so will advance, as will Karlsson, Kim
and Primorac. Schlager and Saive will fight for the last open spot on Day
2.
Results
Waldner lost to Ma Lin 17-21 and 14-21 in the last match of the evening.
Persson got a bye the first match because of a default. Samsonove played
3 games in each of his 2 matches, but lost, despite having his wife cheering
him on. Kong had no answer for Chiang's backhand, and went down 0-2, much
to the disappointment of the crowd.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the penholders have done very well,
so far, with the bigger ball.
These are the results of the last 4 matches:
Chiang-Kong 2-0 (22, 14)
Schlager-Wang 0-2 (-16, -19)
Persson-Samsonov 2-1 (-9, 15, 12)
Ma-Waldner 2-0 (17, 14)
Early results can be found on the official website.
Noisy Arena
Although the event is officially a sell-out, grade-school children occupy
more than half of the seats during the day games. At one point, Kong had
to shield his ears from the noise the kids made. Despite numerous warnings
from officials, the kids created so much distraction with their cheering
that Samsonov threw his racket onto the table in disgust. That brought
him a yellow card, but more importantly, he might have lost that match
against Kim because of the disctractions.
Waldner vs Kong
"Kong and I are the best table tennis players in the world", Waldner said.
"I think we will play our best so that we could face each other in the
finals". Kong, however, said that Waldner was just joking, that maybe none
of them will get to the finals, because they have not had enough practice.
Waldner said that he had played the bigger ball in Swedish league matches
and the European Championship League matches, and therefore he is adjusted.
Kong was rather suspicious of that. "The bigger ball benefits me more,
because Waldner's strengths are his serves and his first 3 balls, and I
am better in extended rallies. Because of the reduction in speed and spin,
Waldner's strengths will be negatively affected. If I could play rallies
with him, I have a good chance of winning", Kong told reporters.
According to Kong, he has practiced with the big ball for less than
a total of 30 minutes, after the Olympics. He still is in the learning
phase, and has no feel for the ball. He thinks that most of the contestants
are in the same position as he is, so it's hard to say who will win.
Sponge Changes
The Chinese team increased the thickness of the sponge by 0.05 mm to 0.85
mm to improve the speed. The technicians have prepared sponges of 5 different
hardnesses for the Chinese players, so as to quickly establish the proper
equipment for each player to use with the big ball.
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