Olympic Champions Lost in Club Table Tennis WorldsCurrent world and Olympic champion Liu Guoliang and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Jan-Ove Waldner both lost in the World Club Table Tennis Championship on Thursday.Liu suffered a three-set loss to less-known Joo Se Hyuk as South Korean club Daewoo Securities upset defending champions Chinese Army 3-0. Joo, who played a clever chop-and-attack game, shocked the world No. 4 21-17, 10-21, 21-17 in the second rubber. In the first rubber, Kim Taek Soo downed Chinese upstart Liu Guozheng 13-21, 21-16, 21-13. The South Koreans wrapped the victory as Park Sang Joon defeated teenager Xu Hao 14-21, 22-20, 21-17. Daewoo Securities and the Chinese Army finished 1-2 in the three-team group, both reaching the quarter-finals. Jean-Michael Saive, who played an extremely aggressive game, came from one set down to beat Waldner, one of table tennis all- time legends, 15-21, 21-19, 21-14, as Belgian club Royal Charleroi blanked Swedish champions Adleranz 3-0 in a match which didn't affect two teams' qualification for the last eight. Other qualifiers for the quarter-finals were European champions Borussia Dusseldorf of Germany, Levallois UTT of France, SVS Niederosterreich of Austria and Chinese champions Helongjiang led by world No. 1 Kong Linghui. |
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