ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals!
January 2000!

Liu Guozheng defeats Jorgen Persson on way to winning men's title

To say that Sydney has a spectacular harbor is like saying water is wet.  The setting for these Pro Tour Grand Finals and the 2000 Olympic Games is almost perfect.  Gracious happy people, wonderful venues, enthusiastic crowds and volunteers at every turn.  After the 19 hours of flight, it was certainly nice to meet a SOCOG (Sydney Organizing  Committee for the Olympic Games) representative at the airport.  Terry had come in two days early in order to get used to the 14 hour time change (not to mention going from Winter to Summer) and to get in a little sightseeing.  He took a River Cat to the harbor

Unlike other Pro Tour stops, the Grand Finals only has 16 players in each event.  The top 15 men and women in singles and the top 7 doubles teams are joined by a team in each of the four events from the host country.  In this case Australia.  The players accumulate points on the tour throughout the year to reach this pinnacle.

There are no easy matches to warm up on.  A good example was World #1 vs. World #2 in the first round!!!  World Champion Liu Guoliang did not even qualify to be here!  Also missing for the first time was J-O Waldner.  As you can imagine, this was a pretty intense tournament.  Add to this $225,000.00 in prize money and you have the recipe for excitement.

The Grand Finals is also the Olympic test event this year.  In 1995, the US hosted the World Team Cup in Atlanta to test their venue.  The Pro Tour Grand Final was a fitting test for Sydney and SOCOG.  Held in the Olympic venue, it went on at the same time as the tennis test event, the Adidas Cup.  Phil Males and Neil Harwood along with a terrific staff and hundreds of volunteers made sure it ran well.  Table Tennis has a great location and venue for the Olympics this year.  Get there if you can.  It will be worth it.

We started with 4 tables and dropped quickly to 2 then 1.  Four umpires from around the world joined 4 from 'down under' to make an excellent team.  As I said before, Vladimir Samsonov met Kong Linghui as the first round highlight.  Kong would go through Samsonov, Primorac, and Chiang Peng Lung, on his way to his fateful meeting with Guozheng.  What a path!  Brought down in round 1 also, were Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Cristophe Legout, Patrick Chila, Kim Taek Soo, Russell Lavalle, and Kalinkos Kreanga.

Also coming through the first round were Jean-Philippe Gatien, Jorgen Persson, Qian Qianli, and Werner Schlager.  Schlager would take out Qian, Chiang eliminated Gatien, and Guozheng knocked out Persson.  That earned him a match with Schlager.  A good one it was, but the match of the tourney was Kong and Primorac.  Yup, deuce in the fifth.  A shame it was not a TV match.  Kong, however, could not keep his run alive against the younger, stronger Liu.

On the women's side, it was just as intense.  Dropping in the first round were several top ten players.  Tamara Boros of Croatia, Ryu Ji Hye, Korea, Yang Yin of China, and Tian Zorner Jing of Germany all were taken out.  As well, Anne Boileau, France, Li Jia Wei of Singapore, Shirley Zhou, Australia, and Xu Jing of China.  Advancing were Chen Jing, Wang Nan, An Konishi, Qianghong Gotsch, Sun Jing, Ni Xia Lian, Li Ju, and Chire Koyama.  Amazingly Taipei's Chen went through World Champion Wang Nan, European star Qianghong Gotsch, and World #2 on her way to the title.  Very impressive!!  (Li Ju would get her revenge a few weeks later in Cambodia at the Women's World Cup.)

The doubles were featured here with all matches 3 out of 5.  The Chinese Women were dominant and faced each other in a good finals.  On the men's side, It ended up with France vs. China in a thriller that delighted the crowd.  There were two solid days of live TV broadcast throughout the world.

What a treat it was to get to go to Australia and see the best in the world compete from 5 feet away.  As the Assistant Umpire of the Men's Finals, Terry had the best seat.

Terry umpiring Men's Doubles Semi-Finals (China v. Austria)

Photos of top players - Terry's Table Tennis Resume'




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