Fast Win for Chinese Women in Asiad Table Tennis Opener

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Fast Win for Chinese Women in Asiad Table Tennis Opener

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In the first display of their formidable strength, the Chinese women paddlers used less than 30 minutes to squash Pakistan and gained an easy win in one of the opening matches of the 14th Busan Asian Games table tennis competition Tuesday in Ulsan.

The Asiad table tennis competition kicked off at 2 p.m. Tuesdayin the Dongcheon Gymnasium of Ulsan, a city some 60 kms from Busan,with all of the 10 women's teams and six of the 11 men's teams appearing in the first round of preliminary group matches.

Though expecting little resistance from table tennis minors Pakistan, the all-star Chinese team still sent out its world No.1 and No.2 Wang Nan and Zhang Yining, as well as the 19-year-old GuoYan, a new star now ranked 13th in the world.

The other two Chinese players rested from this match were Li Nan and Niu Jianfeng, world No.5 and No.6 respectively.

Without conceding a single game, the Chinese took a straight 3-0 victory in the best-of-five-matches tie. The Chinese were quite relaxed throughout the match while the Pakistanis appeared completely overwhelmed by their opponents' fast speed, tricky serves and ferocious attacks.

The match started at around 5:30 p.m., delayed by half an hour due to a lengthy encounter between Singapore and Chinese Hong Kong earlier in the afternoon, and was concluded before 6 p.m.

Li Xiaodong, coach of the Chinese women's team, said after the match that China had won so easily simply because the opponents were too weak.

"Anyway, the atmosphere on the court was quite friendly," he added.

Pakistani coaches and players asked the Chinese team to have a picture taken with them after the match.

"I think we have given a quite normal performance," said Wang Nan, dual champion of both the Olympic Games and the world championships. Wang beat her opponent 11-3, 11-1 and 11-6.

The Chinese are likely to get into some troubles in group matches of the next two days, where they will meet Asian heavyweights like South Korea, Singapore and the Chinese Hong Kong.

"This is a group full of strong teams and we will face tough matches from Tomorrow," said the Chinese coach.

The Chinese men's team, in group A with Kuwait and Qatar, had a day off Tuesday.

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