German Open: Predictable and Unpredictable in Berlin

First published on Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Last updated on Tuesday, March 23, 2010

ITTF Press Release

China’s MA Long, the world no1, won the Men’s Singles title at the German Open in Berlin on Sunday 21st March 2010, as his seeding predicted, but in the counterpart Women’s Singles event it was quite the reverse scenario.

FENG Yalan, 20 years old, the World Junior champion in 2006 and the winner one day earlier of the Under 21 Women’s Singles title, totally upset the seeding.

A player with no current world ranking, owing to a lack of international appearances, she won the Women’s Singles title and she did it the hard way.

In the semi-finals she beat top seed, Singapore’s FENG Tianwei before recovering from a three games to one deficit in the final to overcome Chinese national team colleague, DING Ning, the no.2 seed.

Earlier in the day DING Ning had won a gruelling semi-final duel against team mate WU Yang, the reigning World Junior champion and an expert in the defensive art.

MA Long, who overcame compatriots CHEN Qi and WANG Hao to secure the Men’s Singles crown, added a second title by partnering CHEN Qi to Men’s Doubles success.

In the third all China final, on the concluding day of play, they beat HAO Shuai and ZHANG Jike, the latter having earlier in the day suffered defeat at the hands of WANG Hao, the reigning World champion and no.2 seed, at the penultimate stage of the Men’s Singles event.

Three titles for China but it was not to be a full house.

Japan’s 21 year old Ai FUKUHARA and 16 year old Kasumi ISHIKAWA secured victory in a thrilling seven games Women’s Doubles final over DING Ning and LI Xiaodan.