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Veteran Ma Wenge on Course to Retain English Open Champion
Defending champion Ma Wenge and world number one Wang Liqin, both of China, advanced to the semifinals of the 64th British Open table tennis tournament in Chatham, England, on Saturday but Sweden's all-time great Jan-Ove Waldner made an early exit in the third round.
Ma, 32, a former member of Chinese world championship winning teams in 1995 and 1997, showed superb form though he has retired from Chinese national team, beating Petr Korbel of Czech in the third round 21-14, 21-18, 21-11 and eliminated fellow Chinese Feng Zhe 21-16, 21-19, 15-21, 21-13 to reach the semifinals.
Top-seeded Wang, 22, gold medalist in the Sydney Olympic Games with Yan Sen, met little trouble to defeat Chen Weixin of Australia 21-5, 17-21, 21-16, 21-9 en route to the final four.
Wang will next face former Chinese national player Iseki Seiko, formerly called Wei Qingguang and now representing Japan, while Ma will take on Werner Schlager of Austria in the semifinals on Sunday.
Seiko, who won a double Olympic gold medal in the 1988 Games, beat Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium 21-15, 24-22, 16-21, 21-18 and Schlager fought off a hard challenge from Christophe Legout of France to win 12-21, 21-15, 15-21, 21-14, 21-16.
Waldner, arguably the greatest table tennis player in history, suffered a surprise defeat to Seiko 21-16, 21-16, 21-19 in the third round. But the 36-year-old said he has not thought of retiring in the near future.
"I will not retire soon. I don't think so. I have not thought of the question," he told Xinhua.
Waldner, who led Sweden to three successive world team champions from late 1980s to early 1990s and won a fourth last year, said he has set his sights on the next World Championships to be held this summer in Japan.
"We were lucky last year to win the world team champions last year in Malaysia," he said. "But overally, Chinese players were and are still more powerful than us."
The former world number one, who has slipped to 11th in the world rankings, said he still believes that he can win more world champions at this age.
"I don't think age is an obstacle for me and for table tennis," he said. "I think I can win more world titles."
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