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Table tennis duo edged out in semis

Hirano Sayako of Japan returns a ball to Samara Eliabeta of Romania during their match at the World Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb on Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

Taiwan's men's doubles pair Chang Yen-shu and Chiang Peng-lung had their gold medal dreams cut short at the World Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, yesterday when they ran into China's Wang Hao and defending singles and mixed-doubles champion Wang Liqin in the semi-finals.

The match started off evenly, as the Chinese took the first set 11-6 and the Taiwanese came back to take the second 11-7. However, the two Wangs surged ahead in the next two frames by winning 11-8, 6-11 to take a 3-1 lead.

Chang and Chiang managed one more 11-6 victory in the fifth set, but were finally overpowered in the sixth 11-5 to drop the match.

That guaranteed the dominant Chinese squad another 1-2 finish, as top-seeded Chen Qi and Ma Lin defeated Hong Kong's Ko Lai-chak and Li Ching in the other semi-final match, setting up an all-China final.

In the men's singles, Chiang had another tough match against a Chinese opponent in the round of 32, losing to Chen Qi 0-4 on Thursday night.

Meanwhile Chuan Chih-yuan easily defeated Hungarian player Janos Jakab 4-1 to advance to the round of 16, where he was scheduled to have another shot at Wang Hao last night.

China also dominated the mixed doubles division, with three semi-final spots occupied by Chinese pairs. Wang Linqin and GuoYue were scheduled to play Ma Lin and Wang Nan last night.

Taiwan's Chuan Chih-yuan and Huang I-hwo made it into the round of 32, but were defeated by China's Lei Zhenhua and Ding Ning 1-4.

Topspin specialist Wang Liqin on Thursday teamed with Wang Hao in the men's doubles to oust Selya Kishikawa and Jun Mizutani of Japan, and with Guo Yue in the mixed doubles to eliminate Oh Sang-eun and Kim Jung-hyum of South Korea.

Third-seeded Timo Boll of Germany, the top non-Chinese, overcame Ju Lin of the Dominican Republic 11-7, 11-3, 4-11, 11-7, 11-7 on Thursday to keep the European flag flying in the last 16.

Defending her singles and doubles titles, Zhang Yining of China advanced into the fourth round after Wenlin Tan Monfardini of Italy was forced to retire through injury.
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