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Samsonov Beats Waldner 3-0 in Men's Singles
Former world number one Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus whitewashed table tennis legend Jan- Ove Waldner to reach the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships on Friday.
The 35-year-old Waldner, who has won a "Grand Slam" of Olympic, world championships and World Cup singles titles, misjudged timing of hitting and made a lot of errors in attacking and rally, losing 8-21, 14-21, 18-21.
World eighth-ranked Samsonov dealt well with the Swede's array of serves, which often swerved visibly after leaving his bat.
"Samsonov returned Waldner's serves very well and he made much less errors," said Zhang Xiaopeng, a researcher on the Chinese team.
Zhang said China rated Waldner and Samsonov as the top threats and he felt relieved that one threat was gone.
"They are the best European players and held in great respect by Chinese," Zhang said.
"Waldner has very good serves and he is also a master of change of pace. Samsonov has lethal forehand attacks. Chinese would rather play Samsonov than Waldner," he added.
In the 1997 world championships, Waldner routed Samsonov 3-0 to win the men singles crown.
Samsonov is to play against Chinese Olympic champion and world number two Kong Linghui in the quarter-finals.
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