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(Sports)China crush Japan for men's table tennis title

Xinhua, March 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

China routed a toothless Japanese team 3-0 to claim their eighth straight men's title at the World Team Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday.

Rooted for by thousands of Chinese clad in either red or white, Xu Xin, Ma Long and Zhang Jike, ranked Number 3, Number 1 and Number 4 respectively, beat Jun Mizutani, Maharu Yoshimura and Yuya Oshima at the Malawati Stadium.

Both Xu and Ma won in straight sets while Olympic champion Zhang, as a slow starter, lost the first set in his 3-1 victory over Oshima.

Xu took a comfortable win over Japan's Mizutani 11-6, 11-8 and 11-8, giving a perfect start for China.

"I think Mizutani is a very strong player and one of our main opponents. I just tried to forget about the pressure and play in a relaxed manner," Xu said, adding that he believed that China is still stronger than Japan as a whole team.

Ma followed Xu by defeating Yoshimura easily 11-3, 11-8 and 11-6, earning the second point for China.

Losing his first set to Oshima 9-11, Zhang Jike started to capture the game in the second set and gained dominance in the court.

He sealed the victory for the defending champions by beating Oshima 11-8, 11-6 and 11-7.

"I'm really happy to win the game in Malaysia. I also feel thankful to the support of the audience at the stadium," Zhang said.

Last time China lost men's crown was in 2000, right here in Kuala Lumpur, where Liu Guoliang, now China's head coach, and Kong Linghui, women's coach, were stunned by an aging Swedish team led by Jan-Ove Waldner.

Commenting on the gap between the Chinese team and the other teams, Liu said China has made great efforts on promoting table tennis, which was the reason why China is so strong in this area.

"I have witnessed the emergence of the Japanese table tennis team in the recent period. If other countries could develop this sport like Japan, their gap with China will get closer," he added.

Earlier, China took their third straight, 20th overall, women's team crown after beating Japan 3-0 in the final, where the Japanese women put up a real fight, snatching three sets from Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia and world champion Ding Ning. Enditem