another surprise

So, China's men's team took the gold in straight sets over Germany. First, young blood and rising young star, Dimitrij Ovtcha (currently ranked #14 in the world), lost in straight sets to Wang Hao (currently ranked #1 in the world). Ovtcha is only 19 years old (only about 4 months older than Atha), and I saw him win the juniors' event at a Junior Circuit tournament in Spain in 2005. Tonight, he really couldn't manage much against Wang, who is totally on top of his game (his hair, though, is a completely different issue). Timo Boll (currently ranked #6 in the world), on the other hand, put up a great fight in both his match against Ma Lin (currently ranked #2 in the world) and in the doubles match (Timo Boll/Christian Suss vs Wang Hao/Wang Liqin). Timo is probably the only non-Asian player with a really good shot at beating a Chinese player, and probably has the best shot against Wang Liqin, who has not looked sharp at all; he almost lost to William Henzell of Australia on Thursday, and looked off in this doubles match. Anyway, credit when credit is due: congrats to China's men's team for the gold, and good job to Germany for putting up a great fight and for the silver!

In the battle for the bronze medal, Korea defeated Austria 3-1.

As for US players, Crystal Huang of the US women's team lost her preliminary round match for women's singles to Yang Fen (CGO) 4-2: (-4, 8, -9, 5, 11, 9). If Crystal had won, she would have played Elizabeta Samara of Romania. Our one male player, David Zhuang, will play in his preliminary round match at 11:30am on 8/19/08 (Beijing time) against Segun Toriola of Nigeria. If David wins, he will play against Joao Montiero (POR) at 8:15pm on 8/19/08 (Beijing time). Gao Jun will play at 1pm on 8/20/08 (Beijing time) against the winner of Eva Odorova (SVK) and Petra Lovas (HUN). If Gao wins, she will play against Li Jiao (NED) at 9pm on 8/20. Wang Chen waits in the round of 32 for her opponent. Singles should be much more exciting and should have many more upsets than teams, so let's watch out for anything crazy!

One last thing... What is going on with Wang Hao's hair...? Seriously, can someone fill me in? Because I really want to know... what part of a mullet/rooster haircut screams "I'm the world's highest ranked male player" ?! Anyways.... go USA! =P