Chinese table tennis great Deng Yaping on Tuesday called on her compatriots to cheer and applaud for every athlete at the upcoming Beijing Games.
“The Olympic Games is a good opportunity for us to show our hospitality to the world,” said Deng, a four-time Olympic gold medallist.
But Deng, who now works with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), criticized her compatriots who left an athletics test event at the Bird’s Nest stadium last month immediately after local hero Liu Xiang had won his hurdles race.
“I do think it was wrong,” said the 35-year-old.
“As an athlete, I was warmly welcomed in the countries I went to. So I think we should reward the foreign athletes with the same kindness and applause.”

from: xinhuanet.com

South Korea, the United States and Germany were all knocked out from the quarter-finals of the world table tennis team championships Wednesday evening.
South Korea’s trio of Dang Ye Seo, Lee Eun Hee and Kwak Bang Bang, two of whom are former Chinese, failed to resist Li Jiao, Elena Timina and Li Jie.
Germany, comprised of Chinese-born Wu Jiaduo, former European leader Elke Wosik and Amelie Solja, succumbed to 2007 European champions Romania, and the U.S., led by former world doubles champions Gao Jun and Wang Chen, lost to an Austrian trio including Liu Jia, Li Qiangbing.
In the other evening elimination games, Krisztina Toth-led Hungary knocked out Croatia with a 3-2 victory.
Reigning champions China received a bye after making the second stage as the top finishers of the previous round robin stage in Group A and will meet Romania in the women’s team quarter-finals on Thursday.
Hong Kong of China, Japan and Singapore also reached the last eight with leading results from the first stage, and face respectively the Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands.
On the men’s part, China scored its fourth consecutive victory after thumping Austria, and Hong Kong of China bounced back to tie on points in Group D with a victory over leaders Singapore.

South Korea’s Dang Ye-seo returns a shot to Li Jiao from the Netherlands during the women’s round of the last 16 of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou February 27, 2008. South Korea, the United States and Germany were all knocked out from the quarter-finals of the world table tennis team championships Wednesday evening. [Agencies]

Asian powerhouse South Korea also entered the last eight on the heals of China after beating Chinese Taipei 3-1. They are now leading Group B on eight points after scoring a string of dominant wins over Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
In the day’s other plays, Belarus beat Denmark 3-1, Spain dumped Greece in four games, Italy overcame Croatia 3-2 and Belgium succumbed to Romania 3-0.
The defending champions hardly broke a sweat as Wang Liqin, Wang Hao and Ma Long trampled the Austrian trio of Bernhard Presslmayer, Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn without losing a game in the lopsided one-hour match after beating Belgium, Romania and Croatia on the previous days.
Triple world champion Wang Liqin, defeated by 74-ranked Romanian Andrei Filimon on Monday, said he was still not in best form despite the continuous victories, admitting that the high expectation of home audience and media put himself under enormous pressure.
The match between Hong Kong and Singapore saw a clash of all-Chinese players with both regiments forming strong lineups.
Tang Peng opened the match by beating former Chinese player Yang Zi 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 and ended it with a 11-7, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8 victory over top Singapore paddler Gao Ning, also from Tang.
Veteran Li Jing, who lost two points in Hong Kong’s 1-3 defeat to Denmark on Tuesday, failed to pull himself together in the following match and lost 8-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 to 10th-ranked Gao Ning and lost the only point of Hong Kong.
Li claimed Hong Kong’s first Olympic table tennis medal in Athens partnered with Ko Lai Chak, after losing to Chinese duo Ma Lin/Chen Qi in the men’s doubles final.
Twenty-four teams are vying in four groups in championships division in the week-long tournament.The last round group matches on Thursday will see top finishers in each group earning the berths for the quarter-finals and the second and third ranked squads striving for the remaining spots in the last eight later in the evening.from: chinadaily.com.cn

With a bulging trophy cabinet and happily married to a multimillionaire Realtor, Chinese table tennis queen Wang Nan says her life will be perfect with an Olympic appearance at home.
The 29-year-old is the most decorated Chinese table tennis player, with 20 world and Olympic titles to her belt, beating previous record holder Deng Yaping by two. Called to the national team at the age of 15, the baby-faced northeastern Chinese wears the national jersey longer than legendary Deng.
“I will keep fighting until after the Beijing Olympics,” Wang Nan has told reporters on many occasions.
Wang Nan is seeking China’s last Olympic ticket since 2004 Olympic singles winner Zhang Yining and reigning world champion Guo Yue have qualified automatically.
The only roadblock to Wang’s Olympic outing is the second ranked Li Xiaoxia, winner of the International Table Tennis Federation’s Pro Tour singles final last December.
The Asian Olympic qualifying tournament, which will take place in Hong Kong in March, will unveil China’s third Olympic participants. The tournament’s official website shows Wang Liqin and Wang Nan as entrants.
However, China’s table tennis administrator said on Thursday that Chinese women’s third ticket is still up for grabs.
“I can assure you that Wang Liqin will compete for China’s third men’s berth in Hong Kong, but we haven’t decided on the women’s candidate,” said Liu Fengyan, director of the Chinese Table Tennis and Badminton Administrative Center.
“Before the Olympic qualifier opens on March 6, we can switch names any time. If Li Xiaoxia plays better than Wang Nan in the world team championships, we would send Li to Hong Kong instead,” he added.
The world championships will start in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Saturday and run through to March 2. With its players topping the world rankings, China is expected to easily win its fourth straight men’s title and the eighth straight for women.
The Chinese Table Tennis Association’s media chief Zhao Weizhen believes Wang will outshine the 19-year-old Li in Guangzhou.
“In the team event, experience is usually more important than individual bravery,” said Zhao. “Wang Nan has collected 20 major titles including three Olympic golds and has participated in seven world championships. She is far more experienced than Li Xiaoxia.”
Wang Nan is the only married member of the Chinese table tennis team. Guo Bin, a realtor in eastern China’s Shandong province, won Wang’s heart during the 2005 world championships by sending her 10,001 roses. The two tied the knot late that year.
“He cares about me,” Wang said of her doting husband. “I spend little time with him because both are very busy. But after the Beijing Olympics, we will have a lot of time together.”

from: xinhuanet.com 

As a three-time world singles champion and the most titled table tennis player on the Chinese men’s team, Wang Liqin isn’t good enough for an automatic ticket to the 2008 Olympic Games.
The 2001, 2005 and 2007 world singles champion will first prove his worth in the world team championships which opens in Guangzhou on Saturday and then fight in an Asian Olympic qualifier in Hong Kong in early March.
“My top priority is to help the Chinese team defend the world team title,” said Wang after a training session on Wednesday, declining to comment on his Olympic dilemma.
Wang Hao, a losing finalist to South Koran Ryu Seung Min in the2004 Olympics, and Ma Lin, twice world runner-up to Wang Liqin, have secured China’s automatic berths in the Beijing Games. The two currently rank top two in the world with Wang Liqin in the third place.
Chinese men’s head coach Liu Guoliang admits the law of jungle applies to his team, saying “only the fittest goes to the Olympic Games.”
“Wang Hao and Ma Lin have been in better form than Wang Liqin and they are ranked higher too,” said Liu.
Wang Liqin saw his form drop after beating Ma Lin in the 2007 world championship final in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, losing his world top ranking and registering a poor record against his teammates in the second half of 2007.
The Chinese coach has denied media insinuation that Wang Liqin has been ordered to go easy on his teammates in international events to ensure Wang Hao and Ma Lin to automatically qualify for the Olympics.
“Wang Liqin is a perfectionist,” said Liu. “He is trying to be perfect in every aspect - serve, forehand, backhand, connection and rally. He tends to give himself too much pressure. While feeling he is not as perfect as he thinks, Wang seems to lose confidence.”
After a string of setbacks which includes five straight losses to Wang Hao in 2007, Wang Liqin has waken up to the fact that in the Chinese team world singles champion doesn’t necessarily mean the best.
“Wang Liqin has now realized he isn’t superior to his teammates despite the billing as a world singles champion,” said Liu. “I believe he will rebound in this world championships.”
The Chinese men’s and women’s teams are set to dominate the week-long world championships. China has never lost the women’s team crown since 1991, while the last defeat of the Chinese men came in 2000.
Wang Liqin’s career has been filled with bumps. Hailed as the most advanced player on the Chinese team, the 21-year-old Wang lost to Japanese Koji Matsushita in the 1999 World Cup in Guangzhou, enraging then Chinese head coach Cai Zhenhua, who called him “retarded” in front of media.
That loss was costly.
Wang missed the 2000 Olympic singles competition despite his world No. 1 ranking. Instead, Wang took part in the doubles event and won his first Olympic title with Yan Sen.
As defending world and Olympic doubles champion, Wang Liqin missed the doubles action in the 2004 Olympics in Athens after Yanbroke an arm in a car accident. His singles campaign ended in the hands of Wang Hao, who later suffered a meltdown in the championship final against South Korean Ryu Seung Min.

from: xinhuanet.com 

Top seeded Chinese Ma Lin lifted the table tennis year-ending trophy here on Sunday after beating compatriot Wang Hao 4-2 in the men’s singles final.
The 27-year-old Ma revenged on Wang with the 12-10, 11-9, 10-12,11-8, 5-11, 11-9 victory at the ITTF ProTour Finals after his fall on both the ITTF world rankings and his title defending campaign in October’s World Cup.
Also he pocketed the 38,000 US dollars prize money for singles winner, plus a new Magaton by Volkswagen, the Title Sponsor of the event held in the Olympic venue of Beijing University Gymnasium on Dec. 13-16.
Ma, standing on the second position next to Wang Hao in the latest released world rankings, romped to lead 7-3 before taking the opening set 12-10 with powerful top-spin shots.
He remained in high to pull back five points in a row after opening the second set with 0-2 down before tying it for three times to 7-7 and improving it to 11-9.
Wang Hao managed to come back in the third and fifth sets against the anxious Ma, but failed to match the master on serve and receiving who had been a quartet World Cup title holder before losing to Wang two month ago.

China’s Ma Lin (R) reacts during the final of men’s singles against his teammate Wang Hao at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in Beijing, capital of China, December 16, 2007. Ma Lin claimed the title by beating Wang Hao 4-2. (Xinhua Photo/Zhao Peng)

Ma Lin’s victory turned to be an even more extraordinary one as the Olympic doubles winner in Athens failed in Sunday’s pre-match examination on racket. The referees said Ma’s racket was unqualified with thicker sponge and too much solvent-based speed glue.
He had to use Wang Hao’s racket to beat Ma Long in the afternoon’s semifinals and again fix his own racket with Wang’s sponge before evening’s doubles and singles finals.
Earlier in the semis, Wang Hao had beaten off reigning world champion Wang Liqin with a surprisingly easy win, 11-9, 11-7, 5-11,11-5, 11-7.

from: xinhuanet.com 

After four days of competition, the Volkswagen “Good Luck Beijing” 2007 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals came to an end the night of December 16, 2007. In the competition venue, the Peking University Gymnasium, the Chinese team took all four golds.
Ma Lin claimed the championship title in the men’s singles. Li Xiaoxia won the women’s singles, her first championship title in an important international competition. The team of Wang Liqin and Chen Qi took the men’s doubles gold and Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxie were the champions in the women’s doubles. Under the double stress of cumulative Olympic scores and competition in their home country, the Chinese team delivered a great performance. Although in a few battles, it was difficult for the Chinese players to defeat their rivals; looking at the results, the Chinese team maintained their lead. Due to injuries, a main Chinese rival, Oh Sang Eun, did not come to Beijing to compete this time around. Ryu Seung-Min, another strong ping pong player, was defeated by Wang Hao in the first round. Table tennis powerhouse Timo Boll was eliminated by Ma Lin in the quarterfinals.
The main rivals against the Chinese women, Tie Yana, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu were also defeated in this competition.
Former world champion Wang Tao believed that Boll, Ryu and Samsonov did not showcase all of their skill in the competition.

Li Xiaoxia (L) and Ma Lin

The Peking University Gymnasium is the first venue in Olympic history that is especially designed for table tennis. Besides the “China Ridge” outlook, which has significant symbolic meaning, the building embodies professional table tennis features in terms of speed of wind, lights and background suitable for competitive table tennis.
Many players noted that the venue’s air-conditioning system was very good and they did not feel the effect of winds on the ball at all.
However, the players’ reactions regarding the lights were not very good. Wang Yuegu of Singapore said she felt dazzled under the lights when she served.
The organizing committee said they would listen to the feedback provided by all sides to generate all-around improvements.

from: beijing2008.cn 

The Peking University Gymnasium (PUG),to be used for the Table Tennis events of the Beijing Olympics, was inaugurated recentlyIt is the first time that the Olympic Table Tennis competition will be held at a venue dedicated to the sport.

Table tennis was listed as an Olympic sport in 1988 at the Olympic Games in Seoul, and since then, the competition has shared the venues used also for other Olympic competitions for five consecutive Olympics.
Located on the Peking University campus and covering an area of 26,900 sq m, the gymnasium includes a natatorium and is 122.6 m long from south to north and 87.7 m wide from east to west. The table tennis venue on the first floor is 47 m long and 39.5 m wide, has room for eight competition tables, and can seat 7,557.

The inside view of the gymnasium

The project’s steel structure relies on a seven-part support system comprising a pre-stress inhaul cable and horizontal, vertical, and other supportive components. Its roof resembles a table tennis ball between two hyperbolic surfaces, garnering it the name “China Ridge.”
The PUG will hold the Table Tennis preliminaries and finals for the Beijing Olympics from August 8 to 20, 2008 and the Paralympics from September 9 to 17, 2008. As a trial run, this year’s final Good Luck Beijing sport event, the ITTF Pro-TOUR Grand Finals, will be staged at the PUG from December 13 to 19.
After the Olympics, the gymnasium will be transformed into a comprehensive facility for table tennis, handball, basketball, badminton, volleyball, indoor football, and gymnastics competitions; special sports training; physical education; conventions; and art and sports performances.

from: beijing2008.cn