Chinese Table Tennis Turns Eyes to Defensive Players

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, May 25, 2003

Chinese Table Tennis Turns Eyes to Defensive Players

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Alarming bells have rung for China to attach more importance to bringing up more defensive players after their top two players went out at the men's singles competition in the world championships Saturday in Paris.

Ma Lin, ranked number two in the world, was upset by South Korean Joo Se Hyuk in the semi-finals while Wang Hao, currently seventh on the world rankings, was also stopped by another chopper Chen Weixing, who represents Austria at this championships, in thequarter-fina1s.

Both Chinese players, who are more used to the attacking game, seemed to have fallen short of ideas to break the solid defense of their opponents.

The 22-year-old South Korean, 22, who was here for his second world championships, was particularly outstanding as he was not only defending soundly but also attacking very aggressively.

"His defense is very solid and his backhand has lots of spins, so Ma Lin's stroke often failed to get over the net," said Yao Zhenxu, chairman of the technical committee of the International Table Tennis Federation.

"Meanwhile, Joo's transition from defense to attack was well-timed and his stroke is very deadly. He has benefited from South Korea's high-level topspin technique, which made him different from the normal choppers," said Yao.

He suggested that Joo might be the winner of the most-coveted men's singles title. "It is hard to say who will win the title, but it is also very difficult for others to beat Joo," he said.

Yao said that China should draw a good lesson from the world championships and pay more attention to the choppers. "There are few choppers in the world, so Chinese players were not quite technically and mentally prepared for them," Yao added.

"Ma's loss to Joo warned China that each playing style could win. We need have a good study of the defensive game," he added.

Chinese head coach Cai Zhenhua have also noticed the problem, expressing concern on the eve of Ma's match against Joo. "We used to have a lot of ways to handle the choppers, but now we are more comfortable with the attacking game," he said.

"We need to improve this in the future," he said.

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