China keeps on winning in Table tennis

 Feb 26 ,2008 From  Xinhua net

 -- Sixteen-time champions, the Chinese women, have been handed a little surprise on Monday as formidable veteran Wang Nan suffered her first defeat against a non-Chinese paddler in a year here in day two competitions of the world team championship.

Wang was beaten 3-1 by much lower-ranked Kim Jong of DPR Korea, dubbed as the "Mysterious Troop" to world table tennis with few showups, before the Chinese team pulled themselves back to the winning track with points won by Zhang Yining and Li Xiaoxia.

The similar scene happened again late in the evening when the Chinese men's squad screamed an unexpected loss from triple world championship holder Wang Liqin, upset by untitled Romanian Andrei Filimon 8-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-7.

But Wang Liqin saved his pride with a second hit later against the rival side's top paddler Adrian Crisan, winning in straight sets 12-10, 11-2, 11-4 to wrap up the victory for China after ChenQi and Wang Hao both copped up with their fame.

Things are not as easy to bear for the women's world No. 4 Wang Nan, however. The Sydney Olympic gold medalist, one of the sport's most decorated players with 20 world titles, was trailing from theright beginning against her southpaw opponent and lost the match 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 13-11 to the 91st-ranked Kim.

"My adaptability was poor today and I failed to bring myself into full play. I give myself a zero score," said the 29-year-old Wang, a "Grand Slam" winner of Olympics, World Championships and World Cup, who has to give a better performance over younger teammate Li Xiaoxia to ensure a chance of getting an Olympic berth.

She managed a 8-2 advantage in the fourth set to keep her hope of comeback alive, but failed to hold on.

Zhang, also a "Grand Slam" winner who is ranked top on the latest world women's singles standings, met tough resistance from DPR Korea's top paddler fielded in the women's squad here, taking the long fought first set 16-14 and down the second 11-13 before wrapping up the following 11-7, 11-7 for a win.

Shi Zhihao, head coach of the Chinese women's team, refused to take the stumble of Wang Nan too seriously and said it could turn out to be a good thing rather than sorrow.

"DPR Korean players are well-trained and have a high morale," he said. "The fact that China suffered an impact is good for our players because it makes them understand that rivals have the ability to compete with us."

In the afternoon's third round match of the women's team Group A, China left out established Zhang and Wang when facing Croatia and enjoyed their lopsided match 3-0 as the Zagreb world championship's 1-2 finishers Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia teamed with former World Cup title holder Guo Yan to whitewash the European underdogs.

Other surprise of the day came from the Hong Kong women's team, who made a superb comeback from two points down with Tie Yana, Jiang Huajun and Lin Ling to let down the Austrians led by former European champ Liu Jia, who earlier suffered another defeat by Germany on Monday.

The round robin first stage of both the men's and women's events will continue for another round on Tuesday before the last 12 teams emerge from each of the four groups on Wednesday evening for the women's and late on Thursday for the men's. Only the 24 teams of the first division earn their way to the top trophy.