The crowd tried their best to lift the spirits of Patrick Baum and Bastian Steger in their quarter-final Men’s Doubles duel against the Chinese pairing of Chen Qi and Ma Long on the morning of Saturday 20th March 2010 at the German Open in Berlin.

In response, the German duo gave their best but at the end of the day it was Chinese excellence than shone through.

Killerspin’s Chen Qi and Ma Long eventually prevailed in seven games and in succeeding became one of three Chinese pairs to book semi-final places.

Colleagues Wang Hao and Xu Xin beat Korea’s Kim Min Seok and Oh Sang Eun in five games, whilst in four straight games Hao Shuai and Zhang Jike accounted for Poland’s Patryk Chojnowski and Pavel Fertikowski.

However, it was the duel on table no.2 that kept the 3,000 plus crowd on the edge of their seats.

Germans Ahead

Patrick Baum and Bastian Steger established a three games to one lead, they were matching the Chinese duo in every department but in the fifth and sixth games they could not keep pace with their adversaries.

There was no coach sitting courtside for Chen Qi and Ma Long; head coach, Liu Guoliang had been advising Wang Hao and Xu Xin.

He watched impassively from the neighbouring court at the end of the fourth game; his expression said it all: “You got yourself into this mess, you get yourself out of it.”

Team Captain

Supremely talented, Chen Qi took the role of team captain, he was the architect, Ma Long was the killer.

The fifth and sixth games secured, a seventh beckoned; the Chinese duo won the first three points, the Germans called “Time Out” and won the next four but when the players changed ends it was a one point advantage to Chen Qi and Ma Long.

Patrick Baum and Bastian Steger reduced the arrears to 6-5 but they never gained parity and they never won another point; the 2004 Olympic champion and 2007 World champion with Ma Lin and reigning World champion with Wang Hao had masterminded victory.