Zhang Jike, Ma Long to fight for one ticket for 2015 table tennis worlds
Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:
Three months after their World Cup singles final, Chinese star paddlers Zhang Jike and Ma Long will fight for the second ticket through men's team scrimmage for 2015 World Table Tennis Championships.
In the men's World Cup singles final in Dusseldorf last October, Zhang edged Ma in the seven-game thriller, before he controversially put his foot through two plates around the court.
Zhang kept his hot momentum in Thursday's quarterfinals and semifinals, where he beat Hao Shuai and Fang Bo in five-game matches.
"Two five-game matches against Hao and Fang. We all played at a high level today," said Zhang. [ The result of another semifinal between Ma Long and Xu Xin went beyond some people's expectation, where Ma saw a comfortable 3-0 win over Xu.
Fan Zhendong has got the first ticket among Chinese boys for the worlds through stage one of scrimmage here.
In the women's matches, after beating Chen Meng 3-1, world No. 1 Ding Ning will meet Mu Zi in Friday's finals. Mu Zi beat Feng Yalan 3-0 in another semifinal.
"As the match went on, I became more and more aggresive. I was satisfied with my play today," said Ding. Endi