It doesn't always have to table tennis related, so today I have some other exciting news. Japan's top player Jun Mizutani yesterday announced on his blog that he's getting married!
Unfortunately, his blog is in Japanese, but luckily I found a translated version:
"I
suddlenly report that I registered my marriage with the general woman who I
have been together with for a long time. Today on 22nd November 2013, this day
being the memorial day for me and my wife in Japan. Thanks in advance for your
help in Jun Mizutani who starts the life as for the feeling for the world
championship newly without forgetting the feeling of thanks."
Mizutani is lefthanded Japanese player, who is 24 years of age at the moment. He has already won quite a lot of titles, for example the Korean Open in 2009, wich was his first victory on the ITTF Pro Tour Singles.
Last year, in 2012, Jun Mizutani reached his highest rank (so far) on the ITTF World Ranking list, he was ranked fifth. At this moment, he is ranked on place 14, wich is still very impressive.
That's it for today, as there isn't much table tennis-related news to tell you.
Thanks for reading, and I'll be back with more news!
From 13 'til 17 November, the German Open (a world tournament for points for the world ranking) was played in Berlin. Zhang Jike originally was the player with the most chance of winning the tournament, together with Timo Boll.
But despite the fact that everyone thought these 2 would play each other for winnings, the number 5 seed came in and won the German Open.
Fan Zhendong, a Chinese player of only 16 years of age (!), beat Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the final match with four to one.
In his victory, he beat the players who are on place 4, 5 and 9, while he is currently ranked on place 11 on the world ranking. Of course it's pretty clear to everybody that his ranking will go up immensely, when the ranking will be renewed in December.
In comparison, the previous player who achieved something that impressive was Ma Long, and he is currently ranked N°1 on the ITTF World Ranking. Jean-Michel Saive (our national pride) became the best Belgian player for the first time at the age of 16 (1985), which is also very impressive.
So in my opinion, Fan Zhendong will be great a player who will achieve a lot in his future, so we have to watch out for him in the next tournaments.