Local favorites fail to set up All-Chinese final of mixed doubles at Asian TT champs

Hosts China failed to secure a mixed doubles title ahead of Friday's final at the Asian Table Tennis Championships as Fang Bo/Wang Manyu were out-classed 3-2 by their Japanese rivals on Thursday.

The provisional pair was strained to five sets after losing the opening set, but led 10-7 in the decider over Masataka Morizono and Mima Ito before the Japanese duo took four points in a row and won 13-11.

"I felt so sorry to lose the semifinal encounter," said Fang after the match. "After all, we are the better players individually comparing to the Japanese opponents."

"There's no one to blame but ourselves," he added. "We could have played more patiently by the end of the game."

His partner Wang Manyu, however, declined to mourn on the passing games.

"No regrets," she said. "We performed at our normal level. It's just the result that we are not satisfied with. We had our chance but failed to seize it."

Another Chinese duo Zhou Yu and Chen Xingtong, on the other hand, claimed a relatively easy victory, beating Kenta Tazoe and Miyu Maeda, also from Japan, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10.

Both of the Chinese pairs were formed to partner with each others on a temporary base just for the Asian championships. They just trained for about one hour together as partners.

The mixed doubles final will be played on Friday evening. Endit