Two Taiwanese table tennis players made history on Saturday when scoring the country’s best performance at the world championships as they qualified for the doubles final.
The duo — Chuang Chih-yuan and Chen Chien-an — beat their Chinese opponents, Wang Liqin and Zhou Yu, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8 in the semi-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris.
Chuang and Chen were to face two other Chinese players — Hao Shuai and Ma Lin — in yesterday’s final.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia knocked off top seed and title-holder Ding Ning in a thrilling contest to reach the women’s singles final on Saturday.
Li triumphed in the French capital with an exhilarating 8-11, 11-1, 4-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-8 victory.
Her opponent in yesterday’s title match was to be second-ranked Liu Shiwen, who would be making her first appearance in the final after seeing off 18-year-old Zhu Yuling 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, with China already assured of winning all the medals in the women’s singles.
Title-holder Zhang Jike moved into the men’s singles quarter-finals by beating Austria’s Robert Gardos 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.
Zhang, the Olympic champion, but seeded fourth after some inconsistent displays this year, was to face Patrick Baum for a place in the last four.
World No. 1 Xu Xin swatted aside the challenge of Portugal’s Marcos Freitas en route to a commanding 11-7, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 success to earn himself a last-eight meeting with Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira
The third German to reach the last 16 and Europe’s leading hope Timo Boll cruised into the quarters as he ruthlessly disposed of Japan’s Seiya Kishikawa 11-6, 11-7, 11-4, 11-3.
The two-time World Cup winner is to face China’s Ma Long in the next round.
The 2009 champion Wang Hao saw off Gao Ning of Singapore 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 1-5, 11-3, while Yan An, another member of the formidable China squad, also advanced after powering past sixth-ranked Chuang Chih-yuan of Taiwan.
Earlier, South Korean mixed-doubles pair Lee Sang-su and Park Young-sook extinguished China’s hopes of completing a fifth consecutive clean sweep at the event as they ousted Wang Liqin and Rao Jingwen in the semi-finals.
However, they came up the short in the final as they were beaten by Kim Hyok-bong and Kim Jong from North Korea, who claimed their country’s first world title since 1977.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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