Swedes eliminated

China Open review

Saturday, June 1, 2002

ITTF Press Release

Qingdao, China, 1 June 2002. The quarter finals – and no longer. Both remaining Swedes in men’s singles lost on Saturday.

Youngster Jens LUNDQVIST who has had a fantastic tournament couldn’t do anything against World Champion WANG Liqin (CHN). WANG won 4-0 and the Swede was only really close in the 2nd game.
Jan-Ove WALDNER met Korean OH Sang-Eun. In that match WALDNER never reached his maximum. He was simply not fast enough to resist OH’s heavy top spin from both wings.

In Qingdao new Chinese are taking some steps forward. Young WANG Hao was superior to LIU Guoliang beating the former World Champion 4-2.

QIN Zhijiang (CHN), 26 years old, has not been representing China much in men’s singles, but here in Qingdao he is giving the best Chinese a lesson. In the quarter finals he beat World Cup winner MA Lin.

Surprise finalists in Men's Doubles

Qingdao, China, 1 June 2002. The South Korean winners of men’s doubles at the Grand Finals 2001 KIM Taek Soo/Oh Sang Eun were seeded to reach the final at the China Open – now their compatriots RYU Seung Min/LEE Chul Seung are there instead.

They beat KIM and OH in the quarters and in the semis they were to fast for the clever playing Hong Kong pair LEUNG Chu Yan/CHEUNG Yuk.
In the final they are facing the World Champions WANG Liqin/YAN Sen who survived a thriller against compatriots MA Lin/KONG Linghui.

KONG and MA were leading 3-0, but slowly the World Champions recovered and they levelled and took the match 4-3 winning the last game 12-10.

In Women’s Doubles it will be a final between North and South Korea. The North Koreans KIM Hyon Hui/KIM Hyang Mi were down 2-0 against BAI Yang/GAO Xi (CHN) but the two KIMs have shown before that they are fierce fighters. They came back and took the match. In the final they face LEE Eun Sil/SUK Eun Mi (KOR).

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Swedes eliminated

Surprise finalists in Men's Doubles

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