Eugene Wang – The Best Present: A Win Against Fan Bo, 2015 World Championships Runner Up
Courtesy of Table Tennis Canada
November 13, 2015, Stockholm, SWE – The Swedish Open, a classic on the ITTF World Tour would be the place where Canada’s Eugene Wang would celebrate his 30th birthday – and celebrate he did. Unseeded in the Men’s Singles, the Canadian faced tough opposition from India’s Amalraj Anthony winning the match by a score of 4-2.
Next up, France’s Romain Lorentz, a player who has given Wang trouble in the past; however, a concentrated effort and clever tactics saw Wang overcome Lorentz 4-1.
Japan’s Masato Shiono would oppose Eugene Wang in match 3 in Stockholm. Shiono, winner of the Japan and the Czech Open, would prove a formidable opponent – but Wang dominated the rallies and overcame the Japanese star with a 4-1 tally. “This was probably one of my better matches in my career,” Wang looked back at the match.
The knock out draw at this World Tour event would not be kind to the Canadian as the Silver medallist of the 2015 World Singles Champion Fan Bo was up next trying to end the Canadian’s progress. Game one was a very close affair in which Fan Bo edged out Eugene Wang in a close contest at 12-10. In game two, Wang dominated the Chinese star winning 11-2; game three 11-9, Wang. Fan Bo fought back and levelled the match at 2-2. Bo and Wang split the next two games tying the match at 3-3. Eugene Wang was in similar situations before, where he came extremely close to winning against an absolute to player only to see the match slip away in game 7 – not this time. With an excellent start to the game, Eugene Wang took the initiative and would never look back, securing his best career win to date and closing the match out 11-5, 4-3, Eugene Wang, Canada.
“This was a very important win for me, I know now what is possible,” said an elated Eugene Wang on Skype from Stockholm.
The competition will continue tomorrow for the Canadian when he will face local hero Kristian Karlsson.
