Chinese Pull off Thriller Final

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, May 24, 2003

Chinese Pull off Thriller Final

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It was a clash full of exciting topspin rallies as Ma Lin partnering Wang Nan overcame fellow Chinese, Liu Guozheng and Bai Yang, to win the mixed doubles titleat the world table tennis championships on Friday.

"The two pairs know each other extremely well, yet they played a tremendous match at a very high level," said China's head coach Cai Zhenhua.

Familiarity was undoubtedly a hurdle to be overcome as Ma Lin said: "Everybody could see it was a very tough match, we know eachother very well, so all the time it was a matter of finding the opponents' weaknesses. We didn't play well at all in the first two games but in the third we decided to play more topspins and it started to work out for us."

MA continued: "I enjoy playing with Wang Nan, she is always very confident, that makes it much easier for me. Often it is the man who is the leader in mixed doubles but playing with a world champion, like Wang Nan, it is different; her confidence and experience are very important to me."

Wang is a player who won just about everything there is to win but never before had she won the mixed doubles title.

"It's true that I've won several world championships but this is the first mixed doubles title, so this victory is very important for me, " she said. Furthermore, playing with Ma Lin and playing in Paris are also much to her liking: "I won the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals here and now I've won a title at the world championships, I like Paris and I enjoy playing with Ma Lin, he really fights for each and every point."

All four players on duty gave their best and the crowd played their part; they clapped, cheered, blew air horns, performed the Mexican wave and unquestionably appreciated the splendid efforts of the four Chinese stars, a fact acknowledged by Cai Zhenhua: "The crowd in Bercy has been tremendous, the whole tournament has been excellent and the atmosphere has motivated the players to give their best, they've helped to raise the standard of play."

The first medal decided and in favor of China, that must be a very satisfactory result for their head coach. "Yes, I'm very pleased," added Cai Zhenhua. "I'm very satisfied with the performance of the whole team, I hope the mixed doubles victory will motivate our players to further success."

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