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China sweep into final at world table tennis
2008-03-02
All-conquering China moved in for the kill at the world team table tennis championships Friday, sweeping into the men's semis after their women reached the final. The Czech Republic battled bravely against China, whose formidable paddlers, the top three in the world, outclassed the Europeans 3-0. China's world champion Wang Liqin brought roars from the crowd after he fought back from 2-1 down to defeat a defiant Peter Korbel, before world numbers one and two Wang Hao and Ma Lin mopped up for the Red Army. "Winning the first match was the key because the Czech Republic are very good. If we lost that it would have been difficult," coach Liu Guoliang said. China, gunning for their fourth straight team title, face a semi-final showdown on Saturday with Hong Kong, who had a tougher time against Romania in their quarter before prevailing 3-1. Hong Kong's Li Chin easily downed Andrei Filimon, before Romania clawed one back thanks to Adrian Crisan. But Tang Peng, who has impressed at these worlds, steadied for Hong Kong, before Li returned to defeat Crisan, desperately diving around the table to return the Romanian's smashes. South Korea, runners-up at the last worlds, are also through after a see-sawing showdown with Germany, who have forged on doggedly at these worlds without European champion, the injured Timo Boll. Germany got off to a flying start before South Korea, led by Olympic champion Ryu Seung-Min, fought back and held off the tireless Germans for a 3-1 victory. South Korea now face off against Japan, who also produced some spectacular play Friday to win their quarter-final against Taiwan. Jun Mizutani took less than 20 minutes to down his opponent, although teammate Kaii Yoshida faced a tougher battle against Chuan Chih-yuan. At 10-10 in the fourth game, Yoshida stole match point with a serve that barely scrapped the edge of the table. Yoshida sealed victory with a smash that Chuan netted, the ecstatic Japanese pumping his fists in the air. With the writing on the wall for Taiwan, Kan Yo wrapped up his tie for a 3-0 win. "This was an incredible match, an ideal example of a perfect match," Japan coach Yoshihito Miyazaki said. Miyazaki said his charges were rapidly improving, and warned they were aiming to become a team other top nations, even China, feared to play. "We are still gradually coming out of the dark ages and we are getting younger players and... we want to keep building up the strength of the team," he said. "We want to become in a position where other teams are a little bit afraid of us," he added. China's women, boasting the world's top five players, proved too powerful for Hong Kong, whose paddlers offered little resistance, as the mainland look on course for their eighth straight team title. China, who downed Hong Kong in the final of the last two worlds, are using these championships as a warm-up for the Beijing Olympics when they are expected to take a clean sweep of the golds. China face Singapore in Saturday's final after the city-state destroyed Japan's dream with a 3-0 whitewash. Japan, who have won over the crowds this week with their hard-fought and emotion-charged victories, were simply outclassed by Singapore, who boast Commonwealth Games gold medallist Li Jia Wei. "I feel so bad that I couldn't win to help my team," said Japan's teenage star Ai Fukuhara, her teammate Sayaka Hirano in tears.
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