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2014 Hungarian Open - Titles Secured but One Remains Elusive, is Age on Side of Tang Peng?

Winner of four titles on the ITTF World Tour and one at the Grand Finals, Hong Kong’s Tang Peng seeks his first at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open which starts in Budapest on Wednesday 28th January.

 

He is the top seed in the Men’s Singles event; he is the favourite to achieve what he has never achieved.

 

Tang Peng has never won an ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles title, he has come close but he has never crossed the finishing line in first place; all the successes have been in Men’s Doubles events.

 

In 2010, with compatriot Jiang Tianyi, he won the Men’s Doubles event at the Austrian Open; before later in year, again with Jiang Tianyi, securing the stop step of the podium at the KAL Cup ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.

 

Meanwhile, last year in partnership with Wong Chun Ting, he won on the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour in Spain, Australia and Russia.

 

However, the top step of the Men’s Singles podium has always proved elusive, despite the fact that he has been competing on the ITTF World Tour for well over a decade.

 

He made his debut in 2002 at the Korean Open; since that date he has reached the quarter-final round of an ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles event on 14 occasions but only twice has he advanced beyond that stage.

 

In 2007 at the Chile Open in Santiago, he was beaten in the final by Japan’s Kan Yo; whilst more recently at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Japan Open in Yokohama he advanced to the penultimate round where China’s Yu Ziyang ended progress.

 

Tang Peng is approaching his 34th birthday; he will celebrate the occasion in just over one week’s time on Wednesday 4th February. So is time running out for the Hong Kong star?

 

No, not at all, Tang Peng is maturing like a good wine; the best is yet to come!

 

At the US$ 1,000,000 GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, Tang Peng progressed to the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event, beating England’s Paul Drinkhall and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, before losing to Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

 

Furthermore, currently Tang Peng owns the highest World Ranking of his career. He is listed at no.14, a position he also held in July, August and November 2014.

 

The ranking gives him a distinction that perhaps he does not want.

 

Currently, he is the highest World ranked player never to have won an ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles title.

 

In Budapest can Tang Peng end that somewhat unwanted accolade and the honour of being the best ever player in the past 20 years to never win an ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles title?

 

Alternatively, will the distinction remain with a compatriot from Hong Kong?

 

Li Ching reached no.10 on the Men’s World Ranking List in June 2008; his best Men’s Singles finish on the ITTF World Tour, the runners up spot in Cairo in 2010 when beaten by India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta in the final.

 

Somewhat similar to Tang Peng, just one final and there is another likeness; he won eleven ITTF World Tour Men’s Doubles titles.

 

 

Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo by: Ian Marshall

 

 
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