(Beijing, December 16) China completed their outstanding run at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals by making a clean sweep of the four gold medals as the four-day competitions at the Peking University Gymnasium came to an end this evening.

Ma Lin was crowned in the men's singles; Li Xiaoxia earned her first Pro Tour Grand Finals title today as she beat teammate Guo Yue in six sets; Wang Liqin/Chen Qi and Guo Yue/Li Xiaoxia took the men's and women's doubles titles respectively.

Competitions in quest of Olympic berths

In addition to testing the operation system of the Peking University Gymnasium, the Grand Finals served as an arena for the top 16 professional paddlers to compete on the same court.

The event has been highlighted by both ace players and officials as the results would count in world rankings points which may come out as a reference for coaches in choosing their Olympic players, according to Liu Fengyan, director of the Table Tennis and Badminton Administrative Center under the General Administration of Sport.

Host China still reigned supreme of the sport and achieved its goal of sweeping all the four golds after booking all-Chinese finals except for the women's doubles. The only one female duo of China, Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia, also went on top of the podium after beating their Korean counterparts in the final.

On the men's side, Ma Lin gained advantage to be part of the Beijing Olympics after winning the singles title; Wang Hao also made an impressive shows by eliminating Korean Ryu Seung Min in the 1/8 finals and Belarussian Vladimir Samsonov in the quarterfinals respectively; The defeat to Wang Hao in the singles semifinal cast a shadow on Wang Liqin's hope to play in the 2008 Olympic Games.

"I improved a lot through these fierce fights. I lost to Wang Hao this time but brought to bear new skills and gained experience at the same time." Wang Liqin said.

On the women's side, Shandong local Li Xiaoxia showed her emotional maturity via the final clash against Guo Yue.

"Keep the faith while being kept up with" was her reason for the win.

In spite of losing the singles quarterfinal in a Chinese affair, Wang Nan noted she was still confident about the 2008 Olympic Games, saying "I haven't yet lost to any foreign players so far this year."

As for foreign players, Korean Oh Sang Eun pulled out the event due to injury while his compatriot Ryu Seung Min was ousted in the first round by Wang Hao with German veteran Timo Boll losing to Ma Lin of China in the quarterfinal. Women players such as Tie Yana of Hong Kong China, Li Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu of Singapore were all ousted by their Chinese rivals.

Where to improve for the venue facilities

Peking University Gymnasium, venue for next year's Olympic table tennis competition, is the first of its kind in the world designed specially for the sport of table tennis. Besides the symbolic significance of the "Chinese Spine" resembling a spinning table tennis ball on top of its roof structure, the designers have paid special attention to air velocity, lighting and background setting, the three factors key to a professional table tennis venue.

Members of the Chinese national team including Guo Yue and Ma Lin thought that the air-conditioning system in the gym was well done, as they could hardly feel the wind having any effect on the ball. According to Wang Suying, one of the engineers of the Construction Work Department of Peking University, the air velocity inside the venue has reached the standards through testing by China's authoritative institutions. Moreover, to help the athletes better concentrate on their competition, a dark color was used for all the walls.

As regards the lighting facility, some players complained that the ring-shaped lighting was dazzling bright, which had made it difficult for them to deliver the ball to exactly where they wanted, and that on some occasions it was even the reason why they had missed the ball. They hoped improvement would be made in this respect before next year's Olympic Games.

Besides the lighting problem, Liu Fengyan thought that the space in the inner area was a bit narrow, and as the tables were only a few meters away from the nearest stands, the cheers from nearby spectators might distract the attention of the players and then further affect their performance.

According to the event organizers, after the two table tennis events in Beijing they would begin summing up their experience based on views, opinions and suggestions from various people before making overall improvement wherever necessary.