The 2009 H.I.S.

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include me ...

were held in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, from 28 April to 5 May 2009. The Chinese team dominated the competition, following their sweep of the gold medals in

table tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics Table tennis competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 13 to August 23, at the Peking University Gymnasium. The competition featured the team events for the first time, replacing the doubles events competed in pre ...

. It was the tenth (and third consecutive) world table tennis championships at which China won all five available titles. Fourth-ranked

Timo Boll Timo Boll (, ; born 8 March 1981) is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is ranked second in the German Table Tennis National League, and fifteen in the ITTF world rankings as of October 20 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, a challenger for the men's singles title, was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a back injury. After Boll's withdrawal, players from China held the top four seedings in both the men's and women's singles competitions. The event took place during the

2009 swine flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, is the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Sp ...

, with the participants being affected by this. When a case of the strain was found in the body of a seventeen-year-old schoolboy in Yokohama, where the championships were taking place, the event's organisers implemented new measures to stop the flu spreading. Thermographic exam cameras were installed at the player entrances of Yokohama Arena, with the intention of sending anyone with unusually high body temperatures for medical assistance. The players were told to scrub their hands well for hygiene reasons and to avail of face masks and hand gels which had previously been used during outbreaks of

severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sev ...

and

avian influenza Avian influenza, known informally as avian flu or bird flu, is a variety of influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds.

. Participants from Mexico, the most severely affected country taking part in the championships, were placed in quarantine and given thermometers to check their temperature regularly.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

collected seventeen of the available twenty medals at the championships, to follow their four golds at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. After the championships had ended, the country's deputy sports minister, Cai Zhenhua questioned whether China's dominance in the sport would have a negative effect on its development. He said: "From the point of view of the Chinese association, the coaches and the players, it is a great achievement. But personally I am anxious that it is dangerous for the development of this sport worldwide. The truth is we have failed again. Chinese players grabbing all titles in whatever tournament they participate in is definitely detrimental". He advocated issuing invitations to non-Chinese nationals to train in the country and suggested Chinese coaches could be sent to other countries as "up to 70 percent of Chinese knowledge and tactics could be shared with others".

Medal summary

Medal table

Events

Venue

Yokohama Arena is an indoor arena located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The capacity of the arena is 17,000 and was opened in 1989. The arena was modeled after US sports venue Madison Square Garden in New York City. It is a five-minute walk from the ...

Champions

All five finals featured Chinese players only.

Men's singles

Wang Hao World number one Wang Hao beat

Wang Liqin Wang Liqin (; born June 18, 1978, Shanghai) is a retired Mainland Chinese table tennis player. As of January 2014, he is ranked 12th in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). He began playing at the age of 6 and was picked for the Ch ...

in the men's singles final, China's third consecutive men's singles title and fifteenth world championship title in that section.

Women's singles

Zhang Yining Zhang Yining (; born 5 October 1981) is a Chinese table tennis player who retired in 2009. She is considered one of the greatest female players in the sport's history. In terms of achievements, she is one of the most successful female table tenn ...

Olympic gold medallist

beat her fellow countrywoman,

Liu Shiwen Liu Shiwen (; born 12 April 1991) is a Chinese table tennis player. She is a five-time World Cup champion, one-time World Champion, three-time ITTF World Tour Grand Finals champion and four-time Asian Cup champion. She is known to be one of the ...

, to win one of the women's singles semi-finals, whilst Guo Yue, the defending champion, beat

Li Xiaoxia Li Xiaoxia (; born 16 January 1988) is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion. Career She trained in the Jiangsu Wuxi Shanhe Club in Wuxi, China. Her trainer is Li Sun, who is also the mentor of Olympic gold medal winner Zhang Yining. As ...

in the other semi-final. Zhang went on to beat Guo in the final, securing China's eighteenth women's singles title.

Men's doubles

Chen Qi / Wang Hao In the semi-finals of the men's doubles, Ma Long and Xu Xin beat

Jun Mizutani is a retired Japanese table tennis player. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17. His consecutive singles titles at the national championships from 2007 to 2011 made him the first man to win the event five times in ...

and

Seiya Kishikawa is a male Japanese table tennis player. He paired with Jun Mizutani in men's doubles competitions, the duo won four consecutive national titles from 2007 to 2010. They also won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and two titles at th ...

to play Chen Qi and men's singles winner, Hao, in the final match. Chen and Hao won the title.

Women's doubles

Guo Yue /

In the semi-finals of the women's doubles, Guo and Li beat

Jiang Huajun Jiang Huajun (; born 8 October 1984) is a table tennis player from Hong Kong, China. Career records Singles (as of September 4, 2015) * Olympic Games: Round of 16 (2012) *World Championships: Round of 16 (2009, 11, 13, 15). *World Cup appearanc ...

and Tie Yana of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and

Ding Ning Ding Ning (; born 20 June 1990) is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Ding won her second world title in w ...

and

Guo Yan Guo Yan (, born June 24, 1982 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese table tennis player. Two-time winner of World Cup in 2006 and 2010. In February 2011, she ranked 2nd in the ITTF world ranking. Career records Singles (as of February 3, 2011) *Worl ...

won against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

's Kim Kyung-Ah and

Park Mi-Young Park Mi-Young ( or ; born November 17, 1981 in Daegu, Republic of Korea) is a South Korean table tennis player. She was part of the table tennis team that won a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Park currently plays for the Samsung ...

Mixed doubles

Li Ping / Cao Zhen The mixed doubles was won by Li Ping and Cao Zhen.

References

External links

ITTF website
{{World Table Tennis Championships World Table Tennis Championships International sports competitions hosted by Japan Table tennis competitions in Japan

Table Tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

April 2009 sports events in Japan May 2009 sports events in Japan 2000s in Yokohama Sports competitions in Yokohama