Xu Xin, Chen Meng claim titles at ITTF German Open

MAGDEBURG, Germany - The finals of both the men's and the women's singles took place as China's domestic matches here on Sunday at ITTF German Open, and the champions went to Xu Xin and Chen Meng.

The men's final was between the leading players of the tournament Xu Xin as the top seed and the Olympic champion Ma Long. The opener was a close game ending 15-13 on Xu's side.

It was a case of one-way traffic in the following games that Xu collected three straight wins 11-8, 11-7, 11-5, to seal the victory.

Xu told Xinhua that he had never expected to beat Ma in such an easy way. "I lost more than I won against him in previous encounters. I was always preparing for a tough match facing him. Today I was very lucky."

In the women's final, the Olympic champion Ding Ning was against her fellow compatriot Chen Meng. Ding started strikes first in the opener, showing the dominance with an 11-3 win.

The top seed Chen turned up the heat in the following games, conceding Ding only one point in game two (11-1). Chen lead 2-1 after finishing the third game 11-7 and proved uncatchable by crushing the former world No. 1 with the overwhelming wins of 11-3 in game four and 11-1 in game five.

"I'm always a slow starter. You can see how I lost the first game. It's a problem haunting me for a long time," said Chen. "I'll try to keep myself up and to be more experienced before Olympics."