The ITTF Table Tennis Qatar open world tour was played from the 7th Feb 2012 - 11 Feb 2012 in Doha, QAT and didn't have all the big names.  Ma Long, Timo Boll and Zhang Jike withdrew. These players made the important decision to prepare for the first big challenge of the year, the World Team Championship. Ma Long and Zhang Jike are in Shenzhen, China in a training camp that will last forty days. Timo Boll also decided to have a good preparation for the World Team Championship because they have the responsibility of successing at home soil this time.   

Qatar 32

In the Qatar Men's singles round of 32 Wang Hao had an easy start against MATSUDAIRA Kenta of Japan. defeating him 4:1. I wonder about how Wang Hao hits the ball because Kenta hit the net a ridiculous amount of times in the first set and continued to do poor backhands. His forehand only appeared a few time and most the time he just blocked at the table. Kenta's strongest shots were directed at the wide backhand near the net. Not an amazing game for either of them.  

Similarly in the Round of 32 the Russian RUBTSOV Igor only managed to get on game from  XU Xin, who is showing very fine skills.

Qatar 16

There were no suprises that WANG Hao beat SAMSONOV Vladimir 4:2 in the round of 16.  It was good to see Hao with out his knee brace on for once, but it is the first time I noticed Samsanov wearing one.  

Qatar Quaterfinal

In the Men's Singles Quarterfinal Wang Hao beat the Korean Lee Jung Woo wolrd ranked 25, 4:2.   There was some great points and match to watch, specially if you like to see a right handed penholder play against a left handed Korean grip penholder using only one side of his bat.  It is the first time I have watched this guy in such detail and worth a bit of a study.  I enjoyed the Joo Se Hyuk struggle against the young German Patrick Franziska.  By far the closest encounter of the qatar quaterfinals came from Ma Lin beating Jun Mizutani 4:3.  I was suprised to see Jun playing very much the same as Ma Lin.  It was mostly third ball attacking mixed up with some awesome rally shots and saves.  Xu Xin went through the easiest of all thumping Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong 4:0, with every game not looking even close.  

Qatar Semi Final

Joo Se hyuk had no answer to the rhythm that Wang Hao gave him.  Wang Hao won the semi final easily at 4 games to 1.  Wang Hao did a great job mixing up his strategy after the first game. Most pros rely on heavy topspin loop attacks and certainly Wang Hao does too, but he knows that this is what Joo expects and practices against. Wang started heavily varying the amount of topspin on the ball to throw off Joo's rhythm. This is why Joo's ball went into the net or over the table so many times. Incredible strategy, most players just consistently loop back and occasionally push a short when attacking a defender.

Qatar Men's Final - best final to watch

What a relief to see such fantastic professional level table tennis going all the way down to the wire.  This was one of the best finals you could see in a very long time and will continue to be a much talked about one too.  Wang Hao had match point at 10:9 in the 7th game when Xu Xin pulled out some final confident finishing points to maintain the title that he won last year.  There was really no difference in who was a better player on the day:  65 points for Wang Hao and 66 points for Xu Xin.  Xu Xin only won one extra point in the match!

You might be happy for Xu Xin's victory in this tourament.  Just look at his no fear shots at 6:16 and 8:46! There are still some hope for his spot in London 2012. China has only two spots already booked for Ma Long and Zhang Jike, but there is one aditional spot for one asian style player.

I cant believe people saying xu xin played well and stuff like that. I saw the match live and he actually stole the match. If you watch the whole match you can see wang hao was getting ahead pretty easy and then xu xin started to whine about his ankle hurting and stuff like that. Wang hao then lost confidence because he stopped playing his best and then lost. For me an undeserved win for xu xin. Wang hao was playing a lot better 3/4 of the match.

Qatar doubles final

In the doubles final, China Ma Lin and Xu Xin met with the Koreans who looked like they really were equal at 3 games each.  Only in the 7th did China make a very clear 11:2 win.   Lee Jung Woo was impressive and confirmed he wasn't lucky beating Ovtcharov in the round of 16. He managed to make some tricky shots and very powerful forehands with wide angle. Kim Dong Hyun almost achieved to be on the same level, he really backed Lee Jung Woo. A great match which proves foreigners can stand their ground against chinese pairs.

Qatar Under 21

It was great to watch Simon Gauzy beat Tzu-HSiang Hung comfortably 4:1 in the Under 21 Quatar Final. This match is the perfect lesson of how to win against the world no 149 with lobs, Gauzy pulled off a sensational side spin chop and then ran to the table to finish in one sensational rally.

Qatar Women Final

In the Qatar women's final between the not so known Chen Meng of China and Seok Ha Jung of Korea it was the same thing as with the men: at the end the chinese win. The Chinese destroyed Korea 4:0 because the chinese player has more (penetration) power, and you can see that especially in the backhand duels, but the korean showed a hard fight and moved swiftly.

In the women's side earlier on at the Qatar pro tour,  Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan beat the chopper Irene Ivancan of Germany (world ranked 49) easily, proving that size makes no difference in table tennis.  

All matches mentioned in texts at tabletennisyoutube.com are always supported by youtube videos in a playlist below.  

Stay tuned for updates as more youtube table tennis videos emerge on the Quatar open.