Champions League Men | 20 Mar 2013

Take-all GAO Ning drawing no lines

If Singaporean GAO Ning manage to continue his winning streak at Dusseldorf`s ARAG Center this Friday (19h00, live and free on LAOLA1.tv), it will mean that most successful European side ending its journey in 2012/2013 Men`s European Champions League. World`s no 14 is just fifth best ranked MECL player, behind Borussia`s Timo BOLL (5), Werder`s CHUANG Chih Yuan (6), Orenburg`s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (7) and Vladimir SAMSONOV (11), but he stays as only unbeaten participant before semi final second leg.

Chartres beat Borussia 3:1 (11:5) in first semi final match at France as GAO brought two 3:0 wins, defeating Patrick BAUM and Timo BOLL. Despite the claim of Borussia`s manager Andreas PREUSS that the German side has just 5 % in rematch, Singaporean knows that nothing is decided yet…

“We won first leg and I am very happy to have been part of this success. But the 2nd leg in Düsseldorf will be another match. We`ll have to be more efficient if we want to reach the final”.
French champion is very close to its best success ever. Last season they lost in semis from Russian Orenburg who lifted the trophy. All their recent successes are connected with GAO Ning who is very happy at Chartres.

“My first steps in Chartres were four years ago. I previously played in Russia and I had the opportunity to come and play in France, and especially in Chartres, an ambitious team. Since that time, no regret: together with the team, we have good results.”

GAO Ning`s best ITTF ranking is no. 9 in 2008. He is the 2007 Asian Cup winner at Hanoi, two times Commonwealth Championships winner (Jaipur 2007, Glasgow 2009), two times Pro Tour winner (New Delhi 2007, Santiago de Chile 2012), three times in a row South East Asian Games champion (Nakhon Ratchasima 2007, Vientiane 2009, Jakarta 2011), semi finalist of Pro Tour Grand Finals (London 2011), quarter finalist of 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, Round of 16 on 2012 Olympics at London, Round of 16 on 2007 World Championship at Zagreb.

On last summer`s Olympics at London he was beaten by silver medalist WANG Hao 4:1 in the Round of 16.

He has 8-0 score in 2012/2013 Men`s European Champions League. He was faced with the biggest problem in his first match, against El Nino`s Tomas KONECNY who was one set up twice, but Singaporean won 3:2 (7:11, 13:11, 6:11, 11:9, 16:14). Last four games, against four medalists from last couple of European Championships, (TOKIC, STEGER, BAUM and BOLL) he has not lost a single set. Of course, the most important win is one against six times champion of Old Continent, Timo BOLL.

All GAO`s matches in MECL 2012/2013
Round 3: GAO Ning – Tomas KONECNY (El Nino) 3:2
Round 5: GAO Ning – Tiago APOLONIA (Ochsenhausen) 3:1
QF 1: GAO Ning – Joao MONTEIRO (Saarbrucken) 3:1
QF 1: GAO Ning – Bojan TOKIC (Saarbrucken) 3:1
QF 2: GAO Ning – Bojan TOKIC (Saarbrucken) 3:0
QF 2: GAO Ning – Bastian STEGER (Saarbrucken) 3:0
SF 1: GAO Ning – Patrick BAUM (Borussia) 3:0
SF 1: GAO Ning – Timo BOLL (Borussia) 3:0

Alex MILETIC, EWT, Alex MILETIC, EWT