sports
China’s men, women’s squads march into table tennis finals
Ding Ning of China competes in the women's semi-finals World Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. – Reuters pic, March 5, 2016.China continued their dominance in the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) when both their men and women's squads advanced to the finals for a record 25th time.
Both teams are vying for their 20th World Championship title in the finals to be played at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam, tomorrow.
The men's team progressed to the final after thrashing South Korea 3-0 in the semifinals to maintain their winning record against the Koreans, who they last lost to about 20 years ago.
In the first singles, world number three Xu Xin made a comeback from an 8-11 loss in first set to outclass Lee Sang-Su 11-2, 11-7 and 11-5 in the following sets.
Later, world number one, Ma Long defeated South Korea's top paddler, Jung Young-Sik 11-7, 11-5 and 11-8, while 2012 London Olympics gold medallist, Zhang Jike beat Jang Woo-Jin 7-11, 11-4, 11-9 and 12-10 in the third singles to secure the final spot.
"Any opponent is not a problem for us because our squad is well trained. Before the match we already knew that Korea will field three youngsters.
"So I purposely fielded Zhang Jike as third singles for him to take revenge against Jang for the defeat in Pattaya (Asian Championship) last year," coach Liu Guo Liang said.
Meanwhile, the women's squad powered by world number two Ding Ning outclassed Chinese Taipei 3-0 to challenge their nemesis Japan in the final tomorrow.
In the first game, Ding Ning beat Chen Szu-Yu 11-6, 11-7 and 11-4, then Li Xiaoxia defeated Cheng I-Ching 11-9, 15-13 and 11-2 before Zhu Yuling overcame Cheng Hsien-Tzu 11-7, 11-6 and 11-2 to confirm their berth in the final.
Earlier, the tie scheduled at 4.30pm was delayed for 30 minutes following a heavy downpour that caused water to leak from the roof onto the court of the 18-year-old stadium.
China's women's squad coach, Kong Ling Hui said the squad was well prepared to face arch-rivals Japan, and know the opponents very well as both teams often challenge each other in the finals and semifinals of many major international tournaments since 2012.
A total of 99 countries, comprising 81 women's teams and 91 men's teams are vying for the world title and ranking in four different divisions, namely championships, second, third and fourth division battles in the weeklong tournament hosted by the Table Tennis Association of Malaysia (TTAM). – Bernama, March 5, 2016.
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