The official draw for the 2008 ITTF China Table Tennis Open was made Tuesday afternoon in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. Most top European players are not included in the participant list.
Among the 32 seeded players, 31 players are from Asia, including China's Wang Hao, Zhang Yining, South Korean Ryu Seung Min and Japan's Ai Fukuhara.
The only European player is Croatia's Tamara Boros. Other top players, such as Vladimir Samsonov from Berarus and Timo Boll from Germany, who ranked 5th and 6th respectively in the latest ITTF rankings, are all absent from the tournament. It seems that the China Open will be the battlefield mostly for Asian players.
Though the European countries seem to have been hiding their outstanding players ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese team still attaches great importance to the ITTF China Open.
"Since the China Open will influence the drawing lots and grouping of the 2008 Olympics, we have sent our best players. We will spare no efforts to win the titles, just like what we did in the past," said Yu Bin, deputy director of Table Tennis and Badminton Games Administration Center of China's General Administration of Sport.
The 2008 ITTF China Open has adopted the Olympic competition system, with team matches and single matches of both men and women, the first time for the ITTF's professional players, he said.
"China Open is taken as an important preparation for the coming Olympics," said Yu.
Wang Hao, who currently ranked as the world's No.1 player, said that the absent European top players may aim at observing the Chinese team's condition without exposing themselves, and they might have preserved some new tactics and skills at the same time.
"We will perform according to the coach's arrangement," Wang said when asked whether he would try his best in the China Open.
The 2008 ITTF China Open will be held from May 14 to May 18 at the Changchun Olympic Rings Stadium, with 95 athletes from 16 table tennis associations. Ten men's teams and seven women's teams will feature in the China Open.
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2008)