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Chinese Win World Club Table Tennis Championship
China's Super League winner Heilongjiang beat South Korea's Daewoo Securities 3-1 to claim the 2nd World Club Table Tennis Championship in Tangshan on Sunday.
Kim Taek Soo, ranked 10th, outlasted Chinese world No. 22 Yan Sen 19-21, 21-17, 21-11, putting the South Korean club in lead.
Kim, disputably the best penhold topspin player in the world, overcame the Chinese left-handed attacker with lethal forehand attack and nearly perfect footwork.
Yan lost his normally tough nerves in the deciding set as Kim launched a string of heavy loop drives and smashes.
Kong Linghui, China's 1995 world champion, snapped Joo Se Hyuk' s giant-killing run with placement shots and forehand topspin attacks.
Joo, 20, had upset China's dual Olympic champion Liu Guoliang and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Jan-Ove Waldner from Sweden early in the championship, but he could not pose any serious challenge to world No. 1 Kong, losing 9-21, 18-21.
Zhang Yong, 1996 Chinese national champion, claimed the lead for China as he nipped South Korean Park Sang Joon 16-21, 21-14, 21-14.
Kong nailed Heilongjiang's victory with a 21-11, 21-17 win over the 30-year-old Kim.
The Chinese Army beat SVS Niederosterreich of Austria 3-1 in the third-place play-off.
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