Chinese Table Tennis

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 5

Chinese Table Tennis

The suggestion by the Canterbury Table Tennis Association that the national body should invite two leading players from the Chinese Peoples’ Republic to tour the Dominion, should be of interest to all players and enthusiasts. If the New Zealand Table Tennis Association adopts this suggestion, the tour will perhaps be made this year, but more probably in 1960. Any tour by Chinese players, of course, would hardly be acceptable unless one of the two tourists was Jung Kuo-tuan, the present holder of the world singles title. This title Jung won in Dortmund, Germany, last month. Before these championships, Jung had not been considered as a possible title-winner, although it had been recognised that the men’s singles could go to any one of a dozen visiting Asian players. Among European players the undoubted leader is the Hungarian, Zoltan Berczik. Berczik was actually seeded first for the world title, but he was beaten by two other Chinese players, Su Jin-tsen and Van Tsuan-jao, in an international contest in Hungary. Van beat Berczik very easily twice in this contest, and he may be the player to come to the Dominion with Jung, if the New Zealand invitation is accepted.