20 Sep TEAM JJ MASTER TEAM ROSSI 17-12 TO OPEN ROUND 4

Action at the T2 Asia Pacific Table Tennis League (T2APAC) resumed after a six-week break with the European players flying in after the European Championships in Luxembourg.

Jiang Jialiang certainly knows how to play to the crowd as he told spectators at the purpose-built T2Cavern at Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios that he has brought a new lucky charm – yet another handheld fan with the words “WIN WIN WIN” on it.

A relieved Vladimir Somsonov of team JJ after defeating Paul Drinkhall 3-2 in a T2APAC match earlier.

Team Fixture 19 would see the T2APAC debuts of two players from China with the same surname – Liu. And it was Liu Fei’s 5-0 win that would prove the difference for her Team JJ, while Liu Dingshuo’s 2-2 draw against Chuang Chih-Yuan could quite easily have been the victory for the 19-year-old former World Junior Champion.

South Korea Jeon Ji-hee would enjoy her second victory in T2APAC, which also ensured Team JJ’s mastery over Team Rossi.

Match 1: Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE) vs Liu Dingshuo (CHN)
Liu’s T2APAC debut started well as the 19-year-old edged a tight first set 11-10. But wily Chuang was hardly going to be intimidated by an opponent 17 years his junior, as he fought back to win the next game 11-6. Liu then showed why he is another of China’s exciting prospects as the 2016 World Junior Champion showed plenty of variation to take the third game 11-5. And Liu looked good to wrap up the victory in the fourth game as he led 6-3 with only 35 seconds on the clock. Jorg Rosskopf called a time-out when Chuang won the next point, and then when the Taiwanese won another point to narrow to 6-5, it was Vladimir Samsonov who jumped in to stop the clock for Chuang, with 2 seconds remaining. Chuang promptly won the next point to force sudden death, and then the deciding point for a share of the spoils.
Commented Chuang on the final game: “I wasn’t thinking too much about the outcome, just wanted to concentrate on every point, and that last time-out that Samsonov called for me worked in my favour. I did ok but maybe played it too safe when I was leading.”

Match 2: Matilda Ekholm (SWE) vs Cheng I-Ching (TPE)
Ekholm made a hot start, taking the first two sets 11-9, 11-8, with commentators crediting her sharpness to her recent European Championship outing. But Cheng found her way back and levelled terms by taking the next two games 11-4, 11-5. In the Kill Zone decider, Ekholm jumped to a 3-0 lead but failed to close out as Cheng fought back to lead 4-3, then held her nerve to win 5-4.
Said Cheng on her comeback: “Matilda played very well today and I was under pressure very quickly. I just kept my head down and fought my way back and just about managed to pull off the win. She controlled the tempo of the match for the first two games, and I managed to regain control after that with a few changes in tactics.”

Match 3: Vladimir Samsonov (BEL) vs Paul Drinkhall (ENG)
Samsonov is certainly no longer the player of yesteryears but the 41-year-old Belarussian showed he still has plenty of fight left in him. Not that Drinkhall is not a fighter himself as the Brit took the opener 11-4 then failed narrowly to complete a comeback in the second set which he dropped 10-11. The third set would again prove to be tight as Samsonov controlled the late goings well to win 11-9. But Drinkhall would fight back from 4-9 down to win the fourth game 11-10 and was unlucky to lose the Kill Zone 4-5 as well.
Said Samsonov: “Paul played really well in the first set and I needed some time to get into my game. I can’t explain how I won the Kill Zone, I think it was mostly luck.”

Match 4: Liu Fei (CHN) vs Elizabeta Samara (ROM)
Despite helping Romania to their first European team title at the weekend, Samara would find it hard to adjust to the attacking chopper style of T2APAC debutant Liu. Apart from coping with the heavy underspin, there was also the flat returns and inevitable attacks that forced constant adjustments. The end of the 24-minute clock would reveal a 5-0 win for Liu with scores of 11-1, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6, and 8-4.
Commented Liu: “Not a difficult match for me as I think she found my style of play hard to cope with. I don’t think they face a lot of choppers out over in Europe. Maybe she had a tough campaign at the European Championships as she wasn’t as sharp as I expected her to be.”

Match 5: Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN) vs Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER)
Six weeks ago, Harimoto left The Cavern with a bleeding hand, having hurt himself in his final Round 3 match. But the 14-year-old looks to have shrugged off that injury in taking the opening set 11-6. Ovtcharov stormed back in the second game, taking the first five points and fighting off mid-set jitters before winning 11-7. Harimoto’s failure to close out an 8-5 lead in the third would prove crucial, as he lost that set 8-11, as well as the fourth 9-11. Ovtcharov had the better composure in the shortened fifth set which he took 6-4 to wrap up a handsome win.
Said Ovtcharov on losing the opening set: “Harimoto changed some tactics since the last time we played and I wasn’t quite ready. But I adjusted quite fast and the key to this match was the third set when he was up 8-5 and I turned it around to win 11-8 and got a lot of confidence from that.”

Match 6: Jeon Jihee (KOR) vs Georgina Pota (HUN)
Jeon rose to the task as the anchor for her team as she shrugged off a nervy start to beat Pota 4-1. That’s after she squandered a 5-0 lead to lose the opening set 8-11. The Korean is making a habit of taking early leads, then failing to have the conviction to push through for victory. And just as it looked like she would dig herself a big hole after allowing Pota to draw level 10-10 from 6-10 down, Jeon found the winning point to take the second set. Emboldened, Jeon took the next two games 11-8, 11-6, and she just about held herself to win the Kill Zone set as well 5-4 for confidence-boosting results.
Said Jeon: “I think I got ahead of myself in the first set, and after losing that everyone told me to just slow it down. That’s what I did and I managed to gain control of the match.”

——————————

Team Captains’ quotes:

“I think Vladimir’s win over Paul Drinkhall was the key to our overall performance, as well as his quick-mindedness in calling the time-out for Chuang in the opening match. He’s truly a team player even if he’s not as fast as he used to be.” – Team JJ captain Jiang Jialiang

“The 5-0 loss by Samara to Liu Fei was always going to be difficult to overturn. But they all fought really hard but it was tough for the European players to finish the European Championships on Sunday night and fly straight here, but that’s the schedule.” – Jorg Rosskopf on the 12-17 loss

Quote of the day:
“I don’t remember having so much luck in a match before and Jorg (Rosskopf) told me I should go to a casino today, I will surely win a lot of money.” – Vladimir Samsonov on having a lion’s share of nets and nicks during his match