Olympic Games: Dang Qiu storms into the second round
European champion Dang Qiu has reached the second round of the Olympic table tennis tournament with a world-class performance in the singles competition. The player from Düsseldorf, who was the only German to take to the table in Paris today, defeated Portugal's Tiago Apolonia 4:1 in his opening singles match and will now play Kazakhstan's Kirill Gerassimenko for a place in the last sixteen on Monday at 8pm.
Dang Qiu does not hand out birthday presents to Apolonia
Although he is known to be extremely polite and has the best manners, Dang Qiu did not hand out any gifts to the Portuguese on the 38th birthday of the table tennis aesthete from Lisbon, who is married to former German national player Zhenqi Barthel. After a nervous start, the Nürtingen-born Düsseldorfer-by-choice had to concede the first set to the 2015 European Championship bronze medallist 2:11, but after a significant improvement in performance, he deservedly won the next four sets 11:3, 11:2, 11:6 and 12:10. With his world-class performance, Germany's most consistent player in two years took his international record against the table tennis aesthete to 7:0. Only in the Bundesliga had he had to congratulate the Grünwettersbach player on winning twice so far.
In the second set, only Dang Qiu dominates the match
The German fans in Paris did not have to worry about Dang Qiu despite losing the first round by a clear margin. The world number eleven impressively put his stamp on the match, which was peppered with many high-class rallies, against the southern European, who was ranked 55 places behind him, in the following sets. While the Frenchmen frenetically cheered on their compatriot Alexis Lebrun, who was playing at the next table, and created a deafening background noise in the South Paris Arena, which was also sold out today, the German alone dominated the match, especially in the second, third and fourth sets, and always had the better answer to every strong shot from the Portuguese player with his lightning-fast forehand and backhand attacks, but also with clever placement and changes of pace. Apolonia's final rally in the fifth set gave the Portuguese player another set point at 10:9, but Dang Qiu equalized with an unreachable parallel forehand and shortly afterwards used his first match point to win 4:1.
Dang Qiu: “Had to really raise my level and played superbly”
Olympic debutant Dang Qiu raised his fist in the air in celebration after his victory and was extremely satisfied with his first singles match. He had quickly come to terms with the botched start: “2:11 was not the best start to the Olympics, but Apolonia also played well. It was clear to me that he was playing with an open mind here. In the end, I also had to really raise my level and played really well, so I took the 2:11 pretty well.” Dang Qiu had already learned from a prominent source that you have to overcome tension and nervousness at the Olympic Games: “Dima Ovtcharov had already told me that at some point you get over the nervousness. Once I'm on the move, hopefully the engine will start running at some point, then it's just a matter of getting the game going. That's the most important thing for me: when my game is going well, I have a lot of confidence in my game and then my opponents have to play at a high level to win against me. This certainty has given me a lot of self-confidence in recent years and hopefully that will also be the case at the Olympics.”
National coach Jörg Roßkopf, himself decorated at the Olympic Games with bronze in the singles (1996, Atlanta) and silver in the doubles with Steffen Fetzner (1992, Barcelona), showed understanding for his protégé's bumpy start: “It felt like all the sets were quite clear. Dang had a hard time getting into the tournament. But it's not so easy when you've been working towards a tournament like this for months or years and have to play a big match against a player as experienced as Tiago, who likes matches like this. But Dang showed a very good reaction after losing the first set quickly. He came back quickly, won the following sets very clearly and that gave him a lot of confidence. So it was a clear success in the end. It's always difficult to beat Tiago. Dang played at his limit and he had to today.”
Dang Qiu took the fantastic but extremely loud atmosphere in the hall, caused by the match of Frenchman Alexis Lebrun taking place at the same time, in his stride. It only had a limited effect on his game: “You could no longer hear the ball ticking. You couldn't hear anything at all. But I have to say, that's also really cool. It's just that Olympic feeling and it's fun. Especially when you win, it's fun. The Lebrun brothers have been working towards this for just as long and deserve every lap of honor they can get.”
Dang Qiu: “I have to prepare for a battle against Gerasimenko”
While Dang Qiu's national team colleague Dimitrij Ovtcharov still has to wait until Monday afternoon to find out his next opponent and the time of his second round match after his victory over Mexico's Marcos Madrid yesterday, Dang Qiu's opponent for the battle to reach the round of 16 has already been decided. The European champion will play his next singles match on Monday evening at 8 p.m. against Kirill Gerassimenko, who is ranked 46th in the world and plays for Bremen.
Anything but an easy task, as Dang Qiu has only defeated his opponent once in the Bundesliga. The only meeting in the international statistics also went to the 27-year-old Kazakh in February at the World Team Championships in Busan, who won his first-round singles match in Paris against Chile's Nicolas Burgos by a clear 4:0. Dang Qiu knows what to expect: “Kirill Gerassimenko is an opponent who doesn't suit me personally that well. My record against him is 1:4 or 1:5. The last two encounters were once 13:11 for me in the fifth and once 11:9 for him in the fifth. So it's going to be a really close, really brutal match. He's a very, very accurate player, returns an incredible number of balls and I have to prepare myself for a real battle.” National coach Jörg Roßkopf added: “Tomorrow I'm expecting fewer serves and returns, but lots of long rallies. Dang will have to move well and be ready to play the balls to the last. Kirill has played very well recently. Overall, he's been playing with a lot of confidence recently. Both have known each other for a long time. It will be a good game tomorrow.”
Source: DTTB press release
Featured images: Dang Qiu (Photo: BeLa Sportfoto)