WORLD UNIVERSITY CHAMPIONSHIPS-FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006

WORLD UNIVERSITY CHAMPIONSHIPS-FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006

Day 5

We woke up early and today, we had our singles which we were all looking forward to. Most groups had 3 players but some had 4 players and we initially thought that two advanced from each group. However, we found out later that only one advanced from each group. In his first match, Pan Lin faced one of the strong Korean players and lost easily 3-0. Shashin Shodhan also played one of the top Koreans and gave him some initial trouble as Shashin was ahead 1-0 in games and 7-4 in the second at which point the Korean started dominating. Shashin said "I couldn't afford to make mistakes against someone so strong which is what happened after I had the lead and he got confidence from my mistakes."

SHASHIN SHODHAN BLOWS A 1-0, 7-4 LEAD IN A BEST OF FIVE AGAINST ONE OF THE TOP KOREANS.

Han Xiao outscored his Hungarian opponent by 13 points but the match came down to the wire with Han winning 11-8 in the decider. Adam showed his fighting spirit against an Italian player as he was down 2-0 in games and when down 2-1 in games, he was behind 8-5, 10-9, 11-10 in the fourth but pulled through. Like Han, he ended up winning 11-8 in the fifth. When the US team was walking to dinner, the Italian guy shouted from his 3rd floor window, "hey american boy!...you have very good (pump fist shown by Italian player)" so Adam felt happy to have received this compliment from his opponent about his fight and will to win. All men players play one more match tomorrow.

For the women, unfortunately, Laura Leach had only one game which she scored more than 4 points in her two matches. However, she seemed to not expect much from herself as table-tennis hasn't had high priority in her life since she broke her elbow while playing Jasna Reed at the 2004 Olympic Trials. Amanda Dubina, despite losing all 6 games she played like Laura, gave trouble to the #2 Chinese girl, Dai Ningyang, who won the team championship for China over Russia deuce in the fifth in the fifth and final match of one of the best team matches in the tournament's history. Amanda said "she made mistakes when I served topspin to her and that kept working throughout the match." She lost 11-8, 11-6, 11-9 which is a very respectable performance against a member of the Chinese female table-tennis machine. Katherine Wu won her third match of the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Hungarian player Timea Viski. Katherine said "she was very mad at times throughout the match and threw her paddle into her bleachers after she lost to me." Katherine lost her second match 3-1 to Sasa Sivec of the home country Slovenia. We ended up watching some of the doubles later round matches and some more singles matches. The team unity of the Asian countries was very impressive as their large contingent of players would really pull for each other whenever any of their teammates was playing as that made the atmosphere electric. The Korean and Japanese players created the best atmosphere in the tournament and the matches between those two countries had the loudest cheering. Koreans would often say "wajay" when a Korean won a point and the Japanese would poke fun at this and say "wajay" when their Japanese teammates won a point. It is interesting to hear that the Koreans are told by coaches to say a certain number of positive comments (sounds or words) out-loud when they win a point and they are clearly the most vocal and positive team.

AMANDA DUBINA PUTS UP A GOOD FIGHT BEFORE LOSING TO ONE OF THE TOP CHINESE FEMALE PLAYERS.

Han and Adam will advance with a win tomorrow and it will be difficult for any of the other Americans to advance as they have all lost at least one match. We went to a bar at night with members of the French team and then relaxed at the hotel after we came back. It has been very fun mingling with players and coaches but unfortunately, it seems that in most countries throughout the world without a big table-tennis star, it is difficult to find sponsors for our sport. Hungary has 10,000 registered players and one experienced Hungarian player said only a few clubs are able to get decent-sized sponsors. In Lebanon, the sports administration only gives $5,000/year to table-tennis and they give $3 million/year to just one basketball club. In Austria, table-tennis has started receiving more publicity thanks to recently-crowned World Men's Singles and European Doubles Champion Werner Schlager and sponsors in Austria are interested in table-tennis more now than ever before. In France, table-tennis is basically never on television anymore outside of the Eurosport broadcasts. Table-tennis in France went from 100,000 registered players to 160,000 registered players when Jean-Phillippe Gatien won the 1992 Olympic Silver Medal and the 1993 World Men's Singles Championships. Gatien did receive good press and is well-known in France. France did show the 2003 World Men's Singles Final on a major national TV channel when it was in Paris filled with a packed house of 14,000 spectators in each session for the entire week. The French leagues are supported by regional sports organizations which are funded by the government. Outside of that support, it is very hard to find sponsors in France for table-tennis. In Japan, World Junior Champions Jun Mizutani, Seiya Kishikawa, and Ryusuke Sakamoto have received no press outside of the Japanese Table Tennis Magazine. Table-tennis is almost never on television outside of commercials or segments on young phenom Ai Fukuhara who is a household name in Japan. Japan has 2 million registered players but their association only has one sponsor, Nippon Airlines. The Koreans say that table-tennis is probably the fourth most popular sport in their country after baseball, basketball, and soccer and they have many sponsors as most top Koreans play in the Korean league for a certain company instead of looking for a club elsewhere in Europe or Asia.

SHASHIN SHODHAN WITH JAPANESE TEAM MEMBER AND MIXED DOUBLES FINALIST TATSUYA ONO WHO PLAYS ON THE PRO TOUR FOR JAPAN.