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Wang Nan Makes Semis at Japan Open Table Tennis
World champion Wang Nan of China defeated two Japanese players to set up an all-Chinese semi- final match in the women's singles at the Japan Open table tennis tournament in Kobe, Japan on Sunday.
The top seed and defending champion in the tournament, brushed aside Keiko Okazaki 6-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-7, 13-11, and went on to beat the best local hope, eighth seed An Konishi, 11-4, 11-4, 12- 10, 11-7 in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals Monday, Wang will take on fourth seed Lin Ling, the winner of Japan's Aya Umemura 11-3, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 and her teammate Zhang Rui 11-5, 12-10, 11-7, 11-6.
The other semi-final match will be an all-South Korean affair between Kim Moo-Kyo and Kim Kyung-Ah.
Kim Moo-Kyo outclassed fellow Koreans Kwon Hyun-Joo and Lee Eun- Sil, while Kim Kyung-Ah eliminated seventh seed Li Jia of China and second seed Tamara Boros of Croatia.
In the men's singles, World Cup holder Ma Lin defeated 1998 Asian Games champion Kim Taek-Soo of South Korea 11-4, 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8 to make a semi-final berth against another Korean, Joo Se-Hyuk.
Second seed Chiang Peng-lung of Chinese Taipei shocked Atlanta Olympic dual gold medallist Liu Guoliang of China 11-4, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 2-11, 11-4, 14-12, while Chang Yen-shu, also from Chinese Taipei, upset third seed Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-9.
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