Hong Kong's Leung Chu-yan took another major step in his burgeoning career by reaching his first singles final on the International Table Tennis Federation's Pro Tour yesterday. The 24-year-old Guangdong born pen-holder beat Taiwan's world number five Chuan Chi-yuan to reach the final of the Danish Open in Aarhus, comfortably defeating the top seed in straight games, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9.
Leung's amazing run was ended in the final, which he lost to Denmark's Michael Maze 4-1: 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 11-5. Earlier however, Leung, in his unlikely doubles pairing with Petr Korbel of the Czech Republic, claimed only the third Pro Tour crown of his career. Leung and Korbel, who play for the same club in Gerany's Bundelsiga (Muller Wurzburger Hofbrau) defeated Maze and Finn Tugwell, the Olympic bronze medallists, 4-1: 11-8, 11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9.
Leung had earlier added yet another impressive scalp to his ever-growing list of quality victories in the singles, triumphing over Russian Alexei Smirnov in the quarter-finals. Leung, who in recent months has defeated reigning world champion Werner Schlager of Austria and the current European champion Vladimir Samsonov, beat Smirnov 4-3: 7-11, 11-6, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8.
Less impressive were Hong Kong's women, who were seeded for success in Denmark. Lau Sui-fei, winner of last week's Polish Open in Warsaw and the top seed, and Song Ah-sim, the third seed, were beaten in the quarter-finals. Lau lost to Hungary's Kristina Toth, while teenager Kristin Silbereisen of Germany accounted for Song. Song and Lau also went out in the semi-finals of the doubles, beaten by Toth and Zhu Fang of China.
The only consolation for the SAR's women was that the other top seeds also went out at the same stage. Second seed Aya Umemura of Japan lost to Dutch-Chinese girl Li Jiao, while fourth-seeded Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus lost to Russia's Oksana Fadeeva. Toth went on to claim her first ever Pro Tour title, beating Silbereisen in seven games in the final.