Chinese paddlers defend men's team title, reach mixed semis at Asian champs

WUXI, East China, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China won its 21st men's team title here on Wednesday at the 23rd Asian table tennis championships, while both semifinals of mixed doubles were set between pairs of China and Japan.

In a final between world No. 1-3 and a trio not even the best three in South Korea, China prevailed to win in three straight games, one 3-1 followed by two 3-0s.

"We sent the strongest squad here since the world championships in Dusseldorf, Germany is just one month away from now on," said the Chinese team's new head coach Qin Zhijian.

Captain Ma Long, who opened the match against world No. 48 Jang Woo Jin, ended up as the only player from the hosts failing to wrap up his game in three sets.

The Grand Slam winner had to strain to win the first set 14-12 over Jang, and gave up his second set 11-4 before coming back 12-10 and 11-3 in the following sets.

Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin both made short work of their respective games, with the former beating Lee Sang Su 11-8, 11-4, 12-10 and Xu, the only pen-hold paddler in world's top 10 rankings, trouncing Jeong Sang Eun 11-9, 11-6, 12-10.

South Korea, on the other hand, missed its only top 10 player of the world rankings Jeoung Youngsik for the men's team final due to injury.

"I'm just satisfied with my team to have entered the final," said South Korean coach Kim Taek Soo after the match.

It has been the 10th men's team triumph for China in a row, following its 17-championships collection from the women's team event.

In the evening's mixed doubles' play, Chinese pair Zhou Yu/Chen Xingtong ousted Wong Chun Ting/Doo Hoi Kem from Hong Kong, China 11-8, 10-12, 13-11, 11-9 to set up a semifinal clash against Japan's Kenta Tazoe/Miyu Maeda, who beat Lee Sang Su/Yang Ha Eun 11-4, 12-10, 5-11, 11-5.

The other semifinal encounter to be played on Thursday afternoon will pick Chinese duo Fang Bo/Wang Manyu, the 3-1 winners (8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7) over Hong Kong's Jiang Tianyi/Lee Ho Ching, and Japanese Masataka Morizono/Mima Ito, who beat Chinese Taipei's Chen Chien-An/Cheng I-Ching 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 to reached the last four.