The 45th World Championships Through The Eye Of The Video Camera

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The 45th World Championships Through The Eye Of The Video Camera

BY GARY RUDERMAN, Owner-Producer, Reflex Sports

PART 2 of 5

In Round 2 of Men's Singles, Waldner starts slow, but wins 21-17 against Sergei Andrianov of Russia, eventually winning the match in five. That ended Waldner's incredible feat of 1997 of not losing a game inthe entire tournament. Kim Taek Soo loses the first game to Hakansson of Sweden at 21-14, but wins the next three at 7, 14 and 19. Persson has a close call as well in the second round, but prevails finally at 17 in the fifth against a new young player, Yoo Seung Min of Korea.

In a Round of 32 match between Kim Taek Soo and Germany's new champion, Timo Boll, Boll starts strong, containing Kim with serves and speed. He takes leads of 10-5 and 15-10, but Kim comes back, catching Boll at 16. Kim misses more serves that ever, and Boll wins at 17. The second game is even until Boll spurts ahead to 12-8, but Kim comes back to win at 19, and then wins the next two at 16 and 18. Boll shows the promise that was evident when he beat Waldner in the 1998 Europeans, but Kim was just too strong at this point.

In the Kong Linghui-Johnny Huang match, Huang starts strong to go ahead 13-11, as Kong is perplexed by Huang's flat hitting forehand and backhand counter. Kong fights back, however, and manages to wins at 21-19. His verbal "whoosh" at the game's end expresses his feeling of relief. Kong finds the answer to Huang's distinctive game, and prevails at 14 in the next two.

Waldner loses the first game against He Zhi Wen at 18. Waldner, however, toys with He in the second, unleashing his best serves. Waldner also hits a number of high lobs as he discovers that the short He Zhi Wen cannot control them. In the third game, Waldner trails 12-15, but gets serious and wins 21-15...and closes the match in the fourth at 14.

Liu Guoliang has another early round scare when he loses the first game of his match with Matthew Syed of England. The chopper confounds the hardest hitter in the game, but not for long. Liu continues a relentless smashing attack, and the incredibly acrobatic Syed dashes to every corner to retrieve. His efforts are to no avail, however, as another smash leads to the inevitable finish at 14 in the fourth.

Song Liu, from Argentina, a left-hander like Gatien, chops to get a return which he can loopkill vigorously. Gatien is surprised by the speed and power of Song's game---both in his chopping and looping, but Gatien is up to the task in this intense match and wins three straight.

While focusing on the theoretically more competitive matches, we were amazed to see that Eloi, the diminutive French ball of fire, had somehow managed to win his first game at 13 against one of the tournament favorites, Wang Liqin. Although Wang was one of the dominant players in the Pro Tour, and a Quarter Finalist in Manchester, he could not match the intensity of Eloi's power-game. The camera catches him standing dumbfounded as shot after shot whizzes by him. Eloi then proceeds to amaze by capturing the next two games at 18 to take the match from the fast rising Chinese star. This victory turns out to be one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. The partisan French crowd whoops it up, lead by Gatien's father with his ever present bugle.

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