DOHA: Fourth seed Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus yesterday posted a couple of upsets to clinch the men’s singles title at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha.
Also yesterday, Germany’s Han Ying, the third seed failed to capitalise on her semi-final show in the decisive match as Romania’s Elizabeta Samara captured the crown in women’s singles event.
Samsonov also known as the ‘Tai Chi Master’ in table tennis power house China because of his top class, stunned Germany’s No.1 seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the final 4-1 to win the title as top-notch action concluded at the Women’s Sports Community Hall.
The Belarusian’s clinical performance in the final came just a few hours after he shocked second seed Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei in straight games.
The 38-year old continued with his fine form in the final against his higher-ranked German opponent, winning the first three games in a row. “I am surprised how well I played here,” Samsanov said. “I have been practising well and I had some great wins here.
“I guess it’s your professionalism is what gets you through,” Samsonov said when asked if he playing younger players was difficult for the seasoned campaigner.
“I have been coming here for many years. The first time I won here was in 1997. It is a great event and yes, I will come back next year,” he said.
“I have a few targets to achieve so I will keep playing. My motivation is winning. I don’t want to give up the sport since I am doing well. “It’s not just me who’s playing the sport for so long. There are many other who are older than men,” the 38-year-old added.
“I am very happy overall since it was a decent field this year. It was not as strong as last year but it was tough. I lost out at the last 16 stage last year and I am glad I won this year,” he added.
On the other hand, Ovtcharov who was engaged in a tough 4-2 semi-final win against Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, earlier on the day did not look up to the mark in the title-deciding encounter.
But, after losing the first three games, 9-11, 8-11 and 13-15, the German strive to make a comeback, grabbing the fourth game 6-11 to reduce lead.
Samsonov, however, was in no mood of dropping another game as he sealed the title by winning the fifth game 11-9.
Ying who defeated top seed Feng Tianwei of Singapore in the fully-stretched 75-minute thriller showed little resistance against the 25-year old Samara who won the trophy with an easy win in straight games.
“This is my first trophy in Qatar,” Samara said. “I have been coming here since I was 14 and now I am 25 now,” she added.
“No I did not expect to win. I wanted to play good and get my form back. I was in Baku last week and I was not in good shape,” she said.
“I am happy that I won. I was home for 9 days and I practiced well,” she said. “I want to be healthy. I made surgery last year and I want to be healthy,” Samara said.
The No.7 seed Romanian who earlier on the day defeated Korea’s Yang Haeun in five games overcame the top seed with 11-6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9 score-line.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s duo of Huajun Jiang and Yana Tie walked away with the women’s doubles title after defeating Ye Lin and Yihan Zhou of Singapore in straight games. The trophy for men’s doubles went to Marcos Freitas (Portugal) and Andrej Gacina (Croatia) who prevailed over Brazilian pair of Hugo Calderano and Gustave Tsuboi in the final, with a similar 3-0 score-line.THE PENINSULA
