China Unstoppable in Table Tennis WorldsChinese showed their table tennis prowess on the second day of the world championships Tuesday, with both the men's and women's teams sailing into the second stage.China swept all five individual, doubles and mixed doubles titles on offer at the world championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 1999. In the team events in the Kuala Lumpur world championships in 2000, China won the women's title but was the finalist in the men's event, losing to Sweden. The all-mighty women's squad dumped Lithuania 3-0 with hardly a sweat raised Tuesday morning. China benched world number two Li Ju, substituting her with sixth seeded Yang Ying. Fast attacker Yang, along with dual Olympic gold medalist Wang Nan and world number three Zhang Yining, beat their rivals in 65 minutes. The Chinese men, led by Olympic champion Kong Linghui, booked a second stage berth with a convincing 3-0 victory over Yugoslavia. Defending champions Sweden were stretched to 3-1 by Denmark, but are on the course to the final showdown with China. "It was a very good result, Denmark are a very good team as well," said Sweden's Jan-Ove Waldner, one of the table tennis all-time greats. Italy, bronze medalists in the 2000 championships, lost to France 3-1. Cheered on by drum-banging and flag-waving ethnic Koreans from Osaka, the South Korean men reached the second stage with a 3-0 win over Poland. Japan posted a second straight win, beating Greece 3-1. |
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