Alexei Smirnov – From Russia with Love

Alexei Smirnov is from Russia and he is ranked eighteenth in the world of table tennis, with 12,029 points in April. His best performance was in 2003, when he was placed eleventh in the months of June, July, and August 2003. However, he slipped back after that, hitting a low of thirtieth place in February 2005. He climbed back to eighteenth position in July 2005 and held it for 3 months before dropping back again to 29 in April 2006. He has fought back to the current rank slowly. In the 2003 Qatar Pro Tour, Alexei Smirnov reached the finals, his first Pro Tour final. On the way, he had beaten 2 top 10 players in world ranking, Werner Schlager of Austria and Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece. However, in the finals, Alexei Smirnov appeared to have run out of steam, when he was up against Vladimir Samsonov. Samsonov was too consistent and strong in his game. Alexei Smirnov lost the first game easily. However, in the second and third game, he was able to come to 9 before losing both the games. Samsonov easily won the fourth game also and Alexei Smirnov was forced to be content as the runner-up.

In recent tournaments, the best performance of Alexei Smirnov was at the 2006 Pro Tour held at Zagreb, Croatia, where he reached the semifinals and the 2006 Pro Tour held at St. Petersburg, Russia, when he reached the quarterfinals. However, one of the best games Alexei Smirnov played was at the recently held Croatian Open during January 2007. Alexei Smirnov triumphed against Ryu Seung Min of Korea, the reigning Olympic Champion and ranked eighth in the world, in a second round match. Alexei Smirnov beat Ryu Seung Min 8-11, 8-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-5, and 11-7, coming strongly from behind after losing the first two games.

In another exciting match that went to 7 games, Alexei Smirnov lost to 18-year old Han Ji Min at the Liebherr Chile Open held in Santiago in the second round. This was last week, on April 20, 2007. Han Ji Min won the match 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 18-16, and 11-9. The scoreline clearly reveals how tough the match was fought. Alexei Smirnov is very strong on his backhand. So Han Ji Min played more to the forehand of Alexei Smirnov, forcing him to commit errors. Further, the reverse service of Alexei Smirnov was very difficult to return but Han Ji Min managed to overcome that problem to win the match.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Alexei Smirnov partnered Dimitri Mazunov and overcame Lee Chu Seung and Ryu Seung Min of Korea 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4, and 11-8 the quarterfinals to enter the Men’s doubles semifinals. The Russians combined well. They contained the fast game of the Koreans with tight returns and long range heavy topspin on both wings. However, in the semifinals, Alexei Smirnov and Dimitri Mazunov lost to Hong Kong’s Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching.

Another interesting game in the career of Alexei Smirnov was his first round match at the ITTF Pro Tour held in Stockholm in December 2002. Alexei Smirnov was facing world number one Ma Lin. Ma Lin took the first 2 games. Then Alexei Smirnov fought back to win the third game. However, he was unable to sustain the momentum and eventually made a disappointing first round exit, losing 4-2 to Ma Lin.