By Neha Aggarwal

Fang Bo will play for Verkhnaya Pyshma`s side in the 3rd tournament of the Russian Premier League, which will take place from 23rd March- 26th March 2017 at the UMMC Hall in the city of Verkhnaya Pyshma.

Delighted on this news, UMMC’s coach Tatiana Kutergina said, “The presence of Chinese giant Fang Bo will significantly increase the chances of UMMC to defend its title in battle with Orenburg which are at the number one spot at the moment.”

She further added, “We are seriously preparing for the playoffs of the Russian championship, because this year we have to defend the title, which is always difficult. I think Fang Bo will significantly increase our chances at the decisive stage of the tournament.”

The other team members of UMMC are Andrej Gacina, Alexander Shibaev and Grigory Vlasov. This season, they did not qualify for the quarter-finals of the European Champions League, and thus they wold aim to place high priority on the Russian League. Fang Bo’s presence will thus strengthen their chances. Their main rivals are TTC Fakel Gazprom comprised of the mighty Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Jun Mizutani and Vladimir Samsonov.

The final, 4th tournament of Russian Premier League will be held from 20-23rd April 2017.

The 25-year old Chinese came to limelight when he won all possible gold medals at the 2009 World Junior Championships held at Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Two years back at the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships held in Suzhou, China, Fang Bo stunned the world reaching the finals of men’s singles. He lost to Ma Long in an extremly thrilling six games encounter (11–7, 7–11, 11–4, 11–8, 11–13, 11–4).

The match also produced the Point of the Century, check it out:

Original interview from ettu.org.