China's young gun Wang Hao has had a "fairly good Olympic
debut", head coach of the Chinese men's table tennis team Liu
Guoliang said in Athens on Tuesday afternoon.
In a third round encounter of the men's singles in the table
tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Tuesday, the
21-year-old Wang, now ranked 4th in the world, beat German veteran
Jorg Rosskopf 4-1 following a quite tense match.
Wang was 6-10 behind twice in the second and fourth games, but
he played with incredible composure and excellence to draw the
scores 10-10.?While winning the second 12-10, he lost the
fourth 11-13.
However, both Wang and Rosskopf agreed that the outcome of the
second game was "of critical importance" to the whole match, as
Wang had taken the first game 11-5.
"If I lost in the second, then there would be a jigsaw battle
and it would have been impossible for me to win by 4-1," said Wang
after the match.
"I had a very good chance in the second game, if I can change
the score to 1-1, I think the match will become real close," said
Rosskopf.?But he conceded that Wang "had played very well at
that moment".
The Chinese coach Liu, men's singles champion in Atlanta 1996,
said that for Wang, a not-so-experienced first-time Olympian, the
opening match in the tournament was "fairly good" and "quite
satisfactory".
"I think he showed his real strength in the match, though still
a bit nervous. He didn't give up any point easily and he got his
due reward," said Liu. "He has played better than I expected."
Wang, widely regarded as the anchor of the Chinese male paddlers
at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will also compete in men's doubles at
this Games, pairing up with Sydney singles champion, Chinese
veteran Kong Linghui.
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2004)