DAWEI ITTF PRO TOUR GRAND FINALS 2001

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GOODBYE TO WORLD CHAMPIONS

11/01/2002
Peter Jensen, ITTF
Tianjin, China

They came into the Grand Finals as substitutes – already on Friday they had to leave again. The World Champions in men’s doubles YAN Sen/WANG Liqin (CHN) lost in the first round to Timo BOLL/Zoltan FEJER-KONNERTH (GER).

The young Germans finished nr. 1 on the Pro Tour standings – the Chinese World Champions did not finish among the 8 best and only came into the Finals as substitutes for MA Lin/WANG Hao (CHN) who cancelled because WANG Hao was injured.

Actually in this particular match it looked like the Pro Tour nr. 1 playing against substitutes.  YAN Seng/WANG Liqin never really got going and especially YAN Sen made lots of errors. The Germans played with high risk – and never missed.

They took the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th game quite easily and they even had 10-7 in the 3^rd game as well but they lost it 12-10.

In the 5^th the Chinese took the lead but the Germans caught them at 7-7. From 9-9 the luck was really on the side of the Germans. They had two edge balls to win the match – but it doesn’t change the fact that the Germans were the best pair on the day.

“If you want to beat the World Champions you have to play with high risk, and that was what we did. Fortunately we both felt really well. When we “threw away” the 3^rd game I was a little scared that the Chinese would get hot, but instead we kept up our level. I cannot remember we ever played that well”, says a happy Zoltan FEJER-KONNERTH.

In the semi finals the German pair will face KIM Take Soo/OH Sang Eun (KOR) who beat the Austrians Werner SCHLAGER/Karl JINDRAK 4-2 in a very spectacular match.