Ping-pong 'diplomats' in rematch

Players who made history hug, play in exhibition games 45 years later

After 45 years, ping-pong athletes who took part in a series of historic exchanges between China and the US in 1971 and 1972 reunited on Monday at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the first stop on the Chinese team's visit to the United States in 1972.

Liang Geliang and Zheng Huaiying, the former world champions who played in the 1971 exhibition match in Beijing against the US ping-pong delegation, excitedly hugged and shook hands with Dell and Connie Sweeris, who were among the nine US players invited to visit Beijing back then.