Wang Nan Makes Semis at Japan Open Table TennisWorld 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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