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IPC Table Tennis Selection Committee Commences Countdown to World Championships
Equality and equity have always been guiding principles of the Paralympic Movement. In recent years the quality and sophistication of elite sports for athletes with a disability has been continuously improved. This is reflected among other things in the selection procedures for regional and world championships as well as for the Paralympic Games. For all such events, the qualification criteria and formula for athlete selection need to be considered and determined with great care.
Bearing this in mind, the Table Tennis Selection Committee has issued its catalogue of criteria and deadlines for the selection process for the World Championships on 13 August, 2002, in Taipei.
The number of slots for the tournament has been set at a maximum of 351 all together. This will be broken down into 250 for male players and 101 slots for females.
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The 351 available spaces are split up into 105 regional, 211 ranking and 35 ITTC Wild Card slots. The selection information has already been sent out and the pre-selection process began on 1 December, 2001. All application forms have to be returned to the IPC Headquarters by 1 February, 2002. On 25 May, 2002, the final selections will have been made and the NPCs will be sent the documentation on the regional and ranking selections, the ITTC Wild Card selection and the teams’ selections.
Unfortunately, the Africa/Middle East Championships had to be called off due to the political unrest in the region. As a consequence, the Selection Committee devised a special procedure to compensate for the cancellation of the tournament. In
order to guarantee equity, the athletes from this region were to have the same chances to qualify for the World Championships through a special formula that took participation at other tournaments as well as their ranking into account.
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Dutch Players Dominate NEC
Wheelchair Tennis Masters
The most prestigious event on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, was held in the Netherlands from 13 to 18 November. As always, only the top eight male and female players of the year were invited to compete.
This round robin format tournament was initiated in 1994 in order to honor annually those top eight players who have demonstrated their commitment and professionalism to the sport. Since then the NEC Masters has developed into the most sought-after trophy of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
At this year’s tournament, the Dutch favorites and winners of last year’s Masters, Ricky Molier and Esther Vergeer again dominated the event.
The men’s Single, which was an all Dutch event, was won by Ricky
Molier. He beat Robin Ammerlaan in three sets. The match was far from boring, though. Ricky took the first set 6:0, but Robin fought back and took the second set on a tie break. A 6:1 in the final set earned Ricky Molier the title NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters Champion of 2001.
In the women’s Single, Esther Vergeer took two straight sets (6:2 and 6:3) to defeat compatriot Maaike
Smit. For the first time, the tournament featured a Doubles event. The women’s Double was won by Esther Vergeer and Maaike Smit of the Netherlands, who beat the other all Dutch team Betty Klave and Djoke Van Marum in two sets, 7:5 and 7:5.
The only event not to be won by Dutchmen was the men’s Double. Here the Czech Miroslav Brychta and his Austrian partner Martin Legner got the better of the Polish/British duo Tadeusz Kruszelnicki and Jayant
Mistry. The final score on the board read 6:3, 6:2.
The NEC Wheelchair Tennis tour itself has been up and running for nearly ten years now. Set up in 1992 with 11 tournaments, it has since grown into a tour comprising 118 events in 32 countries all over the world. International rankings and prize moneys guarantee the high standard in this sport. This year’s champions collected a prize money of US$ 45 000.
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