China

China faces Germany in table tennis semifinals

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-30 09:40

BREMEN, April 29 -- Chinese men table tennis players crushed Saturday their quarter-final rivals France 3-0 to make semi-finals of the 48th World Team Table Tennis Championships in Bremen, Germany.

	Wang Liqin from China returns a ball during his quarterfinal match against Damien Eloi from France at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Bremen, northern Germany, Saturday, April 29, 2006. Wang won 3-1. [AP]

Wang Liqin, holder of world and Olympic titles, opened the winning run by beating Damien Eloi 3-1.

Ma Lin encountered the first strong resistance from France's Patrick Chila but still winning 3-2.

Ma lost the second and third games with 4-11 and 9-11, though he managed to raise his score from 3-8 down to 9-11 in the third game. He achieved a 11-7 victory in the first game.

In the breath-taking fifth game, Ma raced away to a 7-3 lead but lost his upper-handed position as the Frenchman gradually caught up.

Ma secured his victory 13-11 in the end, putting the Chinese team 2-0 over France.

Novice Chen Qi beat his rival Dany Lo with 3-1.

Chinese men's coach Liu Guoliang told reporters after the games that Ma was a bit nervous at the beginning.

"The playing style of both Ma Lin and Chila is similar, both are hard to handle," Liu said.

Chila told Chinese reporters that Ma made a bad start, which gave him the chances of winning two games.

He also thought that Ma was a little nervous at the beginning.

At the same time, host German men table tennis players also entered semi-finals after defeating their quarter-final rivals Russia 3-0.

Christian Suess, Timo Boll and Bastian Steger respectively played against Alexei Smirnov, Fedor Kuzmin and Kirill Skachkov.