China's male paddlers reach team final at Olympics for fourth straight time

Ma Long of China hits a return during the table tennis men's team semifinal between China and South Korea at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 4, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

Chinese men's table tennis team marched into Olympic final for fourth straight time as they crushed the team of South Korea 3-0 in the semis.

TOKYO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's men's table tennis team joined their women's counterparts to book a final slot of team events at the Tokyo Olympic Games, whitewashing South Korea 3-0 in the semis here on Wednesday.

The victory, however, was not as easy as the scoreline may have suggested.

Record twice Olympic men's singles champion Ma Long was stretched to play five sets after he's denied a two-set lead by Lee Sang-su, while world No. 1 Fan Zhendong was once trailing 5-0 to Jang Woo-jin in the second set and couldn't win his third until 16-14.

Ma finally found his rhythm in the decider and managed an eventual victory of 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 13-15, 11-6, after Fan rounded up his game in three sets, 11-7, 11-9, 16-14.

"It's normal," Ma said aftere the match. "It's a semifinal tie and our opponents are Souht Korea. You can't expect every match to be so easy. When preparing for this match, we had thought of losing one or two games.

"But even then, in crucial moments, we managed to pull through," he added.

"If I had to play a fourth game, I would treat everything like it is 0-0," said Xu Xin, who went to warm up when Ma's playing a tough fightback.

"No matter what happens, I wanted to be calm. And no matter what, I was ready for the possibility of having to go on court," he added, saying that, at the same time, he believes in his teammate Ma to wrap up the game in victory.

Ma Long/Xu Xin (L) of China compete during the table tennis men's team semifinal between China and South Korea at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 4, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

The men's doubles session went smoothly in favor of the Chinese side as Ma and Xu, Ma's world title winning partner in 2011 and the first silver medalist of mixed doubles at Olympics pairing Liu Shiwen, trounced Jeoung Young-sik and Lee 11-5, 11-5, 11-8.

"To win the doubles and go 1-0 up was a big help to the team," Ma said.

The Chinese trio will wait for the winners between hosts Japan and the German team led by Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who will meet on Wednesday evening in the other semifinal encounter.

"No matter who our opponents are - Japan or Germany - we have to prepare for five matches. We can't rely on each other (to get the job done), all of us need to do our part," Ma said.

Earlier on Wednesday, China's women's team also secured a final berth as Wang Manyu/Chen Meng claimed a straight-set win over Germany's Shan Xiaona/Petrissa Solja, and 20-year-old Sun Yingsha beat chopper Han Ying 3-0, before Chen came back to win 3-1 over Solja.

China will play Mima Ito's Japanese team in the women's team final.

Both the Chinese men's and women's teams have been crowned in every previous Olympics since the team events were introduced in Beijing 2008.