Busan (South Korea), Feb 18 (IANS) China racked up its third consecutive victory in both men’s and women’s events, while Sweden and Germany went through full-set thrillers to keep their campaign rolling at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals here on Sunday.
In the men’s event, China’s top male player Fan Zhendong faced only slight resistance from Bence Majoros in the opening match, securing an 11-7 win in the first game before dominating with 11-4, 11-5 victories. Liang Jingkun powered China to a two-set lead after getting past Tamas Lakatos 11-6, 11-8, 11-5.
Lin Gaoyuan, playing his first match in Busan, initially lost the lead to Adam Szudi 12-10, but rebounded to win 11-6, 11-2, 11-7, ensuring the defending champions completed their mission, reports Xinhua.
Sweden and Germany both faced tough challenges, pushing through to maintain their unbeaten records in the men’s category. Anton Kallberg clinched the decisive victory for Sweden against Hong Kong, China, with a 3-2 scoreline, and Dimitrij Ovtcharov led Germany to a narrow win over Kazakhstan, also by 3-2. “The most important thing was to win this match for the team victory. Everybody won the match, and we did our job well,” commented Germany’s 10th-ranked penholder Qiu Dang.
World No.9 Tomokazu Harimoto picked up two wins as Japan dispatched Chinese Taipei 3-1, while South Korea eased past Chile in straight sets. Felix and Alexis Lebrun led France to a 3-0 win against Austria for its third win in a row.
On the women’s side, Sun Yingsha reigned supreme in her rallies with Maria Xiao, the current highest-ranked player in Spain’s squad at world No. 60, triumphing 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 to earn China a quick lead.
Chen Meng rebounded from an 11-8 loss in the first game to come up trumps 11-4, 11-3, 11-5 against Sofia Zhang Xuan, putting the titleholder further ahead. “When I led in the first game, my serve was not that good,” explained Chen. “But any situation during the game was within my preparation.”
Chen Xingtong emerged victorious 11-7, 11-6, 11-4 over Elvira Rad to close out China’s straight-set win.
“From a technical aspect, my performance was fine. After building a comfortable lead, sometimes I might want to play more aggressively, and the opponent also had some quality shots,” commented Chen Xingtong.
In a highly anticipated duel on Table 1, South Korea took advantage of Jeon Ji-hee’s two points to outlast Puerto Rico 3-1, while the eighth-ranked home favourite Shin Yu-bin fell in straight games to Adriana Diaz, who sat three places behind her in the world rankings. “It wasn’t much different from the games I played before. It feels like I wasn’t very creative with my plays. Although I’ve played against her before, it was not like she played extraordinarily differently. She just prepared well,” explained Shin.
Jeon made up for Shin’s defeat as she swept Diaz 3-0 in the fourth set to bag another victory for the hosts. “I lost to Adriana Diaz before, and she has a very high-ranking stat. Now that I’m going against stronger players, I am really into my competition mode,” commented Jeon.
Japan continued to show why they’re considered title contenders, dismantling South Africa with a combined scoreline that saw Miyuu Kihara, Miu Hirano, and Hina Hayata lose only 15 points across nine games. Down 2-0 against Luxembourg, Bruna Alexandre led Brazil’s charge, getting the better of Tessy Gonderinger 3-1, before her teammates Bruna Takahashi and Giulia Takahashi also chipped in to turn the tide.
“We never give up if we’re down 2-0 or I’m down 2-0. We’re always trying to win and we’re very proud of ourselves,” said Bruna Takahashi. “Bruna [Alexandre] gave us one chance to come back and we’re very happy that we could use it.”
China look forward to their final group matches on Monday, facing Croatia in the men’s event and Hungary in the women’s competition.
–IANS
bsk/
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
