4/22/2007        LIEBHERR Chile Open

An earthquake at 6.05am on Sunday 22nd April 2007 had shaken the Chilean city of Santiago; the epicentre being some two hundred and forty kilometres (one hundred and fifty miles) away from the host city of the Liebherr Chile Open Table Tennis Championships.

The shock measured a magnitude of 4.9 but nothing was to going to disturb the resolute Tang Peng; in his first ever appearance in a Men’s Singles semi-final on the ITTF Pro Tour he beat his Hong Kong colleague, Jiang Tianyi, at the penultimate stage in four straight games.

He won 11-8, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7.

Styles
Tang Peng is somewhat different to most modern day attacking players; he is shakehands grip player with a strong forehand topspin but he uses short pimples on the backhand and is very effective from that wing when playing close to the table.

On the other hand, Jiang Tianyi is a left handed topspin player; like Tang Peng he uses the shakehands grip but he has reversed rubber on both sides of the racket. He is a fast attacking player.

Brief Rallies
Brief rallies were the order of the first game with Tang Peng holding the advantage at 10-8 and with his services to come; he didn’t need two services, he only needed one.

The first game was secured 11-8, the point which took from 9-8 to game point being an outrageous backhand block against what seemed to be a point winning forehand topspin from Jiang Tianyi.

Backhand
The first game had seen little to choose between the two players, the second was the same. At 9-all it was parity with Jiang Tianyi to serve; honours were shared as Tang Peng returned both services directed the forehand with his backhand.

Level at 10-all, Tang Peng concentrated his efforts on attacking the body of Jiang Tianyi, the tactic worked. He won the game 12-10 and was two games to nil ahead.

Forehand
The major method of success for Jiang Tianyi was in executing his fast forehand topspin; the forehand directed into the body of Tang Peng had enabled to keep pace with Tang Peng but in the third game the latter started to exert his authority.

Tang Peng progressed into a 6-2 lead; Jiang Tianyi recovered to 6-4 but never levelled; Tang Peng extended the advantage to 9-5, then 10-5, winning the game 11-5.

Time Out
Confident, Tang Peng went ahead 4-1 in the fourth game, Jiang Tianyi called `Time Out’ and levelled at 6-all but he could never forge a lead.

Tang Peng won the game 11-7 and was in his first ever ITTF Pro Tour Men’s Singles final.