Korean Scores massive upset, while Thailand Celebrate
with a surprise win
The first two Women qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games have been decided in Hong Kong this
evening of the 7th of March 2008. The first
person to officially win a place from the tournament was
Thailand’s Nanthana Komwong who defeated Haruna Fukuoka
from Japan, a player ranked almost more than 60
positions higher than her on the World Rankings.
It was pure Joy for the Thai player who spends most of
her time playing in the French league. Incredible speed
and backhand topspins were too much for her opponent,
who while making her fight over 6 games was not able to
find enough weaknesses in the Thai’s attacking game.
In the other match on the TV table Wang Nan of China,
hot favorite to book her ticket to the Olympic Games,
lost in what was a massive tussle with Korea’s DANG Ye
Seo, a former Chinese National who recently after 7
years of living in Korea gained citizenship.
In what was a battle the entire match it went all the
way to the wire, down to deuce in the final 7th
game. Although several times during the match the Korean
looked like she we would draw away with the match, first
leading two games to one, then three games to two and in
the last game she was even 7 – 10 in front, but Wang
Nan kept finding something. Every time Wang Nan fought
back you felt she would eventually win, but at 10-10 in
the final set Dang played two incredible points to take
the match 12 -10.
The crowd, media and the large Chinese support base here
in Hong Kong were left speechless and now need to hope
that the Chinese Star can come back full of fight to win
one of the remaining 5 spots available. Given the
experience and skill of the Chinese star, one would
think she will have no trouble to qualify.
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