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China's Wang Nan returns the ball to her Russian opponent Galina Melnik during the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, March 2, 2004. The Chinese women's team beat the Russian team 3-0. |
China's Niu Jianfeng returns the ball to her Russian opponent Svetlana Ganina during the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, March 2, 2004. |
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China's Wang Liqin returns the ball to his Japanese opponent during the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, March 2, 2004. |
China's Kong Linghui returns the ball to his Japanese opponent during the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, March 2, 2004. The Chinese men's team beat the Japanese team 3-0. |
The all-mighty Chinese men's and women's table tennis teams have posted a perfect record after the second day of the world team championships whereas former men's winners Sweden showed only glimpses of brilliance to chalk up a 2-1 win-loss record on Tuesday.
The Chinese men crushed Japan 3-0 and then whitewashed Italy inthe same score, topping Group A of the championship division with six points from three wins so far.
The only shaky performance by Chinese players was from Liu Guozheng, who came from two sets down to nip Italian Massimiliano Mondello in the second rubber.
South Korea were the only other team with three straight wins in the group and they will take on defending champions China on Wednesday.
The South Koreans outlasted Austria 3-2 and blanked France 3-0 mainly thanks to Ryu Seung Min's nearly perfect play.
Ryu humiliated reigning world singles champion Werner Schalger in straight sets and grabbed the five-set fifth rubber against Chen Weixing in their electrified game against Austria and won a point in the France match.
Germany was the sole team with a clean record in Group B of thechampionship division.
Led by former world No. 1 Timo Boll, Germany downed Sweden 3-1 and rolled over Russia 3-0. The newly-married Boll, ranked 10th in the world, edged out Sweden's Jens Lundqvist and Jorgen Perssonand Russian top player Alexei Smirnov on Tuesday.
Sweden, five-time world champions, was struggling with legendary Jan-Ove Waldner sitting out two matches on Tuesday.
Jorgen Persson, 1989 world singles champion, turned out as Sweden's savior as he snatched two points in their 3-2 cliff-hanging win over Hong Kong, China.
With the scores deadlocked at 2-2, the lanky Persson showed hissteely nerves and enormous experience by beating Leung Chu Yan in five sets.
In the women's action, China beat Russia and Chinese Taipei in an identical scoreline of 3-0 and South Korea also kept a clean sheet by beating Singapore and Germany.
Hong Kong, China, topped Group B with six points, followed by Japan and Romania both with five points.
International Table Tennis Federation will make two important decisions in Wednesday's general meeting. "Above-the-head" service,proposed by the Chinese delegation which hopes to make the servicerules simple and thus easy for umpire to implement, will be discussed. The world table tennis ruling body will also choose the2007 world individual championships host from Zagreb, Croatia; Stockholm, Sweden; and Cheju, South Korea.
China's Shanghai will stage the 2005 world individual championships and the German city of Bremen will host the 2006 team championships.
Editor Dany | 