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China take 3rd win at World Table Tennis Championships

Xinhua, February 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chinese men's and women's table tennis teams, both defending champions, were too hard to beat as they both took their 3rd win at the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships here on Monday.

Chinese men's team, who overcame Greece 3-0 last Sunday, took a comfortable three-nil win over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as Ma Long easily beat Choe II 11-6, 11-8 and 11-4, and his teammates Fan Zhendong and Fangbo won their matches 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.

Liu Guoliang, head coach of the Chinese team, believed his team could do better in the coming matches.

"Our paddlers are doing better, and they are getting more concentrated and ready for the circumstances. Our goal in the group stage is to let them tune up for more challenges," said Liu.

Later on, they ousted Chinese Taipei 3-0 as Xu Xin defeated Liao Cheng Ting 3-1, Zhang Jike nailed Chen Chien An 3-1, and Fan Zhendong beat Yang Ziyi 3-0 to secure the 3rd win for the Chinese men's team.

Chinese women's team of Liu Shiwen, Li Xiaoxia and Zhu Yuling proved too strong for the Romanian trio of Adina Diaconu, Bernadette Szocs and Cristina Hirici.

Liu, the 2014 Asian Games winner, took less than half an hour to defeat Diaconu 11-1, 11-9 and 11-5, while Zhu overcame Hirici with a comfortable three-nil win.

Li, the 2012 Olympic Games winner, demonstrated her strength and patience by beating Szocs 4-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6 and 11-5.

"She (Li Xiaoxia) did not participate in any competitions recently because of injury. We'll let her to play more in the group stage. She made some mistakes today, but I am happy to see she is getting better and better," said Kong Linghui, head coach of the Chinese women's team.

The 24 men's and women's teams were drawn into four groups of six teams each for the first stage of the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships which ran from Feb. 28 to Mar. 6.

Chinese men's team is in group A with Austria, Chinese Taipei, Greece, the Czech Republic and DPRK, while Chinese women's team is pitted against Chinese Taipei, Romania, Hungary, Spain and hosts Malaysia. Endit