Politician Philippe Saive Upsets Chinese YanBelgian Jean-Philippe Saive added another Chinese scalp to his name when he edged out Yan Sen in the men's singles second round of the World Table Tennis Championships on Wednesday.The 47th ranked Saive said he now only has Liu Guozheng on his "wanted list" of Chinese players. He has beaten all the other top Chinese players at least once and would love the prospect of meeting the two other Chinese stars at some stage in Osaka. "I love to play against the stars because that is when I find myself at my best. It takes a lot of training and repetitive schedules but at the end of the day when I get a victory like this it is worth it," he said. "I am happy to be in the last 32 and hope to go a step further. I made the last 32 the last time I was here in Japan and in 1993 I made the last 16. This time I want to go further than that," Saive said. The Belgian, who is also active in politics says he still has a couple of years left to play table tennis. "I will be 30 in July so of course I have to prepare for my future but my political career is still way behind my table tennis career," said Saive, who is a member of the City Council in Ans, near Liege. "At the moment, I want to concentrate on table tennis. I am helping the office of the Sports Minister as there are a lot of things in sports in my country that need improvement and I am only too happy to help." On his further political aspirations, Saive said there are severel elections coming up in a few years and he might make a decision then. |
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