Por CBTM
The eleventh year of the ITTF Pro Tour commences on Wednesday 18th January 2006 with the Liebherr Slovenian Open being held in Velenje.
The first ITTF Pro Tour tournament was held in Kettering, England from Wednesday 4th to Sunday 8th April 1996; on that occasion China's KONG Linghui and YANG Ying won the Men's and Women's Singles titles respectively and in 2006, the players who start as favourites for those two titles, are also from China.
WANG Hao and CHEN Qi are the top two seeds in the Men's Singles, whilst in the Women's Singles the number one seed is their Chinese colleague GUO Yue with Singapore's LI Jia Wei seeded two.
Previous Victories
Both the top seeds have previous ITTF Pro victories to their credit and both have won the respective Men's Singles and Women's Singles titles at the prestigious ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals. WANG Hao has won five ITTF Pro Tour Men's Singles during his career and he captured the crown at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in Guangzhou in 2003. Meanwhile, GUO Yue has won three Women's Singles titles on the ITTF Pro Tour and in 2004 was successful at the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in Beijing.
Furthermore, both the top seeded players have Olympic medals to their credit. In Athens in 2004 WANG Hao was the runner up in the Men's Singles event whilst in the Women's Doubles GUO Yue partnered NIU Jianfeng to bronze medal success.
Doubles Seeds
Second seed CHEN Qi has won on one Men's Singles title to his credit on the ITTF Pro Tour, that being at the Volkswagen Open Japan in 2004 whilst for LI Jia Wei, she has stood on the top step of the podium at the end of the tournament on three occasions, two of those titles coming in 2005 when won in Fort Lauderdale at the Liebherr US Open and in Velnje at the Liebherr Slovenian Open.
In the Men's Doubles event it is the Chinese pairing of CHEN Qi and WANG Hao who occupy the number one spot whilst in the Women's Doubles the Singapore duo of SUN Bei Bei and WANG Yue Gu are in the top seeded position.
Expert
CHEN Qi is somewhat of a doubles expert; left handed he is the perfect foil for the powerful right hander WANG Hao but if we are considering doubles experts that accolade must go the man with whom CHEN Qi won gold at the Athens Olympic and partnered WANG Hao at the Panasonic China Open last year, MA Lin.
In 2005 he didn't win a Men's Doubles title, the first time that has happened since he won his first Men's Doubles title on the ITTF Pro Tour at the Australian Open in 1997 with YAN Sen; however, in a period of eight years he has won a quite incredible twenty-seven ITTF Pro Tour Men's Doubles titles, the victories coming with seven different partners. The partners with whom he gained success are CHEN Qi (eight), KONG Linghui (six), QIN Zhijiang (five), WANG Hao (three), LIU Guozheng (two), YAN Sen (two), WANG Tao (one).
Untried
The partnership of CHEN Qi and WANG Hao is untried on the ITTF Pro Tour as is the combination of GUO Yue and LI Xiaoxia in the Women's Doubles; the latter pair presenting the combination of a left and right hander and will be formidable opponents for the top seeds SUN Bei Bei and WANG Yue Gu of Singapore. The latter duo proved themselves to be a formidable pair on the ITTF Pro Tour in 2005 but a title proved elusive. They were the runners up at the Volkswagen Open Korea and the TMS Chinese Taipei Open.
Undoubtedly the appearance of the superb Chinese players will delight the crowds in Slovenia as they have done on the ITTF Pro Tour over the past decade; the Liebherr Slovenian Open 2006 will be the one hundred and twenty-first tournament in the history of the ITTF Pro Tour and it will undoubtedly prove to be the best tournament ever witnessed by Slovenia.
The first two days of competition (Wednesday 17th & Thursday 18th January) are dedicated to the qualification stages in the Men's and Women's Singles events with the main draw starting on Friday 19th January 2006. The finals will be held on Sunday 22nd January 2006.
Source: www.ittf.com
