A local table tennis ace made history on Sunday when he beat Romanian-born Greek player Kalinikos Kreanga in a seven-set men's singles final at the Pro Tour table tennis finals in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
It was the biggest career title so far for 21-year-old Chuan Chih-yuan (
Chuan, who was ranked No. 7 in the world before the season-ending tournament, won 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-1, 7-11, 11-6.
"I didn't even dream about this when I started competing," Chuan, a silver medalist at the recent Busan Asian Games who joined the Pro Tour circuit four years ago, told a news conference after receiving the trophy. "I was thinking that maybe I could make the top four in the world, but this ... never."
After winning the Pro Tour Grand Finals title, Chuan said, his next goal is to win a medal at the 2004 Olympic Games.
Chuan was born into a table tennis family in 1981. His mother was a former member of the Taiwan table tennis national team, while both of his father and elder brother are players.
His mother, Lee Kuei-mei (李貴美), said she originally pegged her hopes upon her eldest son, Chuan Chih-hsiung (莊智雄), to carry on the family tradition.
"At first, I didn't think Chih-yuan could be a good player because he was so short. I began to teach him only after he repeatedly begged me to play table tennis with him," Lee recalled.
Gradually, the mother of two said, she discovered the potential in her youngest son and began to train him as a professional player.
In 1994, she took Chuan to China, which is widely known as a world table tennis superpower, to receive training. "In the following years, I accompanied him on mainland study tours every summer and winter vacation.
"He attended training camps in a number of mainland cities, from Harbin, Beijing and Wuhan, to Chongqing. We endured many hardships, including frigid cold, sweltering heat and inconvenient living conditions.
"But those days turned out to be very fruitful, as Chih-yuan learned all sorts of basic playing skills from mainland instructors," Lee said.
In 1999, Chuan traveled to Germany to start his career as a professional player and developed an intensive exercise regime of running and weight training.
As Chuan is the only Taiwan player to pursue a career in Europe, he is regarded as something of a "lone wolf," but his elder brother prefers to call him the "Oriental Express" due to his playing speed.
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