Hello, my friends on the MCC website, some time has passed since our last meeting. In the past few weeks, I participated in ITTF S. Korea Open and Singapore Open, two important competitions for my warm-up ahead of the Olympics. I am satisfied with my performance at these two tournaments as earlier training efforts took effect well and I am progressing to my personal best. On the other hand, I also found out what to improve in the final few weeks before the Games. Almost all the top players at these two tournaments were in the middle of their pre-Olympics training, so it’s hard to identify the forms of some opponents.

At the S. Korea Open, OVTCHAROV beat me 4-3 in the quarter-finals after defeating WANG Liqing 4-2. He immediately became the focus of press and fans. Honestly, however, I don’t feel surprised by his performance, because he is my teammate in Düsseldorf Club and national team and we join the training almost on daily basis. OVTCHAROV has incredible potentials and he will definitely attract more attention in future. It’s absolutely positive for German table tennis to have such a player like OVTCHAROV, whose presence could boost our chance of winning medals in team competitions.

After these two tournaments, I traveled to Egypt for a short holiday with my wife. There won’t be such rest before the Olympics. Enjoying the holiday with my wife was relaxing, but since OVTCHAROV also made the trip with us, I had to work hard not to lag behind. Therefore even in Egypt we still kept fitness training according to the plan developed by our coach. On top of fitness training, we also had several table tennis sessions. There is no real relaxing time before the Games. 

The Euro 2008 just winded down. Although Germany didn’t win the title, I still feel delighted to see the progress made by this team. Germany is not the best side but the one with the strongest will power to overcome barriers. Germany now has the chance of winning European champion again and has proved that they know well how to handle such a major tournament, which does not surprise me at all as they keep the tradition. 

Generally, the Russian performance surprised me a lot. Individually, Cristiano Ronaldo and Arshavin also left me deep impression. Bastian Schweinsteiger also presented an inspiring show, such as the quarter-final against Portugal where he scored one and assisted two.

(First issued: Titan Sports, July 2, 2008)