Defensive Players Survive in Table Tennis Championships

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 23, 2003

Defensive Players Survive in Table Tennis Championships

Over the years the classic table tennis matchup has been regarded as the attacker vs the defender with the latter making desperate efforts to retrieve the top spin onslaught of the adversary.

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Over the years the classic table tennis matchup has been regarded as the attacker vs the defender with the latter making desperate efforts to retrieve the top spin onslaught of the adversary.

In the modern era those who ply the defensive trade are far outnumbered by those who attack but at the world championships here two players whose skills are based principally on backspin play have survived into the fourth round of the men's singles, both winning their contests in the crucial seventh game.

Joo Se Hyuk of South Korea recovered from 2-3 and saved a sequence of match points before overcoming Li Ching of Hong Kong while Austrian Chen Weixing came through against Lars Hielscher of Germany.

Both players are defenders in the modern day style - good backspin returns from both wings, good services and lethal forehand topspins to win the point or follow up the service as the need arises. However, for the more traditional defender, the one who relies on a quick hit when attacking as opposed to a devastating forehand, it was farewell.

Daniel Tsiokas of Greece is a fine defensive artist but when faced with the reigning Olympic champion the end result was never in serious doubt, Kong Linghui was in the fast lane and emerged victorious in straight games to progress to round four.

Similarly, in the women's singles two defenders remain - Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea and Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus.

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