Locals Predict 2017 Australian Open a Great and Rare Experience

The final Australians have bowed out of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Australian Table Tennis Open, but all have agreed bringing a tournament of such magnitude to the Gold Coast will be a tremendous benefit to the sport, especially ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Jian Fang Lay and Miao Miao, with nine Olympic Games between them, lost 3-1 to India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe in the women’s doubles, while 2016 Olympians Heming Hu and Chris Yan lost 3-0 to Korea’s Woojin Jang and Ganghyeon Park in the men’s doubles.

“I am very disappointed in the way we played the match today,” Jian said.

“The harder we tried, the more mistakes we made. It was a very hard match to play and we are very disappointed.

“I think we are done with big tournaments for this year now, so we will have to keep training in summer. In table tennis anything can happen, we can play a lot better than we did today so I’m not sure what will happen.”

Miao said she and Jian were victims of a lack of high-level competition.

“I’m disappointed with how we played today, we could have played much better like yesterday,” she said.

“We need to prepare more. We don’t get much time to practice for doubles, but it’s a good opportunity to train in doubles with international competition.

“I’m a coach as well so that’s a main reason I don’t have much time to practice myself. I have focused a lot of time coaching so I’ll keep going with that. but if I have more free time I can train more myself.

“Qualifying for the next Commonwealth Games is in January next year, so we will see at that time. You have to be top four ranked to be able to qualify but I will go as a coach.

“We (Miao and Jian) have played together for a long time now, and maybe we will try again for next year. I know there are a lot of young players who want to try for the Commonwealth Games so I think we will try our best to send the best team as possible.”

This week’s $500,000 event is the biggest table tennis event to be held in Australian since the Sydney Olympics, and the most lucrative tournament on the ITTF 2017 World Tour.

“It’s important because for elite players in Australia we have to travel for this type of comp and these types of athletes, so the prize money on offer is more than any other pro tour to draw in some of the best players in the world so it is very good for us,” Australia’s top-ranked male player, David Powell, said.

Melissa Tapper, who made history last year when she competed in both the Olympics and Paralympics, played doubles with Michelle Bromwell on the Gold Coast.

“It’s been awesome to just watch them train, but to play doubles with Michelle against some of the top seeds, we have walked away with plenty of things we can work on so it’s onwards and upwards,” Tapper said

“Our sport definitely needs it so hopefully plenty of people come along to watch the finals and to see how awesome our sport actually is and get the profile out there and raise awareness of it while it’s on home turf.”

The event is being held at the Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre, and had a high-profile visitor on Wednesday – Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Miao Miao last year missed her first Oympics as a player since 2000, and said Australian players need to grab the opportunity the Australian Open offers with both hands.

“It’s such a big event with lots of international world class players coming over all very strong, so I am quite happy with what we did in the doubles and happy with how I played in the week,” Miao said.

“I think table tennis in Australia is seen as more a social game, so to invite all these international players to the Australian Open lets people know more about table tennis, and how it is not just a social game but international and about the professional players, how they play and how they look.”

Her doubles partner, Jian Fang Lay, was one of only two Australians, the other being Powell, who competed in the main draw of the singles competition.

“In the singles I played quite well, but it was a very tough match and my opponent (Eunhye Lee, Korea) was very consistent,” she said.

“But I’m happy with my play. It’s good for the promotion and good practice for the Commonwealth Games next year.

“To have it here is more exciting but I have a lot of experience with it being my fifth Commonwealth Games, but it’s always good to try and do better.”

Powell agreed the experience this week has been invaluable.

“I haven’t played many top 30 athletes before, so I’m better for the experience,” he said.

“It also means I can play in the World Cup later in the year, which will be a similar environment to this, so I’m thankful for that as well.

“It’s important because for elite players in Australia we have to travel for this type of comp and these types of athletes, so the prize money on offer is more than any other pro tour to draw in some of the best players in the world so it is very good for us.

“We still have 7-8 months before Comonwealth Games qualifying, so I just need to get home and keep practicing and play as much competition as I can. But that’s the next big one so hopefully I can qualify for that.”