April World Rankings 2014

Ovtcharov passes both Wang Hao and Zhang Jike. Jun Mizutani re-enters the top 10 by switching with Vladimir Samsonov and Seo Hyo Won passes Kasumi Ishikawa to gain the 8th spot.


A career-high for Dimitrij Ovtcharov - Photo by: zimbio.com





Past month showed two big events: The Asian Cup, and a Super Series World Tour; the German Open.





Ma Long and Ding Ning - 2014 Asian Cup Champions - Photos by: ATTU


In Wuhan, China, the GAC Asian Cup was played according to the same system as used in the GAC Europe Cup earlier this year.

Top seeds were Ma Long and Fan Zhendong in the men's event, and Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia in the women's event. As expected all four fought their way through the groups into the main draw. Notable was the participation of Korea DPR. Biggest surprise of their team was Ri Myong Sun, who ended 1st in her group by beating only higher ranked players Feng Tianwei, Kasumi Ishikawa and Seok Hajung. She kept going until the semi final where she was stopped by Li Xiaoxia. Ding Ning also made her way to the final by a win over Yu Mengyu.
In the final match, Ding Ning beat the reigning World and Olympic champion in 6 sets.

Fan Zhendong had some problems in his groups stage, needing the full 5 games against both Chen Chien-An and Tang Peng. After that, he found his form and booked a place in the final by two impressive 4-0 victories over Achanta and Mizutani. People were hoping for a rematch of Ma Long and Fan Zhendong in the final to see if Fan could already get along with the rest of the top 3. Ma Long went for it and entered the final after 4-1 victories over Kim Min Seok and Chen Chien-An. The final was what the crowd wanted to see: A spectacular match of the highest level, won by Ma Long, 4-3.






Shan Xiaona and Dimitrij Ovtcharov - 2014 German Open Champions - Photos by: ITTF


Wang Hao, together with a group of Junior Chinese talents visited Germany to make things difficult for the favourite Dimitrij Ovtcharov. However the German Open was a tournament of big upsets. Already in the first round Stefan Fegerl posted a win against Chuang Chih-Yuan. Tomas Konecny defeated Koki Niwa and Robert Floras beat Oh Sang Eun. Most surprising player was Steffen Mengel, who knocked out top seed Wang Hao, as well as Cho Eon Rae and Alexander Shibaev. Also there was Tiago Apolonia accounting for two upsets against Jiang Tianyi and Michael Maze. However, the final was an exciting showdown between Jun Mizutani and the crowd's favourite winner: Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

The women's event had no Chinese participants. Number 2 seed Li Jiao exited in the first round against Hala Cho of Korea. A nice chance for the German team to also grab a prize on home soil. Both Han Ying and Shan Xiaona reached the semi finals but had to face each other. The winner, Shan Xiaona, went on to battle with the top seed Seo Hyo Won. Shan showed no problems with the defender and won 4-0.





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