CHENGDU, China, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) — Hosts China’s men’s table tennis team claimed their fifth straight win against India to set up a men’s quarterfinal against Sweden at the World Team Championships here on Thursday.
Indian men’s table tennis team surprisingly beat Germany in the group stage, but there was not much they could do against China in the 3-0 loss.
“It’s different in the knockout stage, we played more aggressively and every match is like a final,” said world number two Ma Long.
“The next game against Sweden will be more difficult, because they are very powerful,” Ma added. “But we are more experienced, and I trust our team.”
Sweden also beat Belgium in straight sets, but world no.6 Truls Moregard edged world no.96 Martin Allegro 3-2 in a difficult match.
Portugal and Germany both beat their opponents 3-0 to advance to the men’s quarter-finals, where they will face Japan and France respectively.
In the women’s quarterfinals, the world’s top three players Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu outscored their rivals 3-0 to help China beat Portugal 3-0, conceding just a total of 36 points to their European opponents.
In the semi-finals, China will face Chinese Taipei, who beat Singapore 3-2.
Su Huiyin and Zhu Chengzhu helped Hong Kong, China to a 2-0 lead, but they have lost their last three games against Germany, who face Japan in the semifinals.
Japan defeated Slovakia 3-0, with world number 6 Mima Ito easing past Ema Labosova who managed just 13 points in three sets.
Source: sn.dk