Both Chinese men's and women's teams defeated their opponents 3-0 in the semifinals of the 2019 Table Tennis Team World Cup on Saturday.
In the the women's semifinal, China sent Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning to play against Chinese Taipei in the doubles, while Chen Meng and Ding played in the next two singles matches.
In the doubles competition, Liu and Ding faced Cheng Hsien-Tzu and Chen Szu-Yu. In the first game, Liu and Ding quickly adapted themselves to the competition, leading the game 8-0 with high-quality balls. Liu and Ding trailed 2-8 in the third game but followed up with six straight points to rally back. China finally won the doubles 11-2, 11-9, 11-9.
China's Chen Meng played against Cheng I-Ching in the singles match. The first game saw fierce competition, and Cheng I-Ching held the last two balls to win. In the following three games, Chen Meng increased her use of forehand, and repeatedly played high-quality, fast and variable service to win with her last shot an ace. Chen Meng defeated her opponent 10-12, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8.
Ding also beat Chinese Taipei's Chen Szu-Yu 3-1. Ding was in excellent form in the first game, and at one point led with 9-0. Ding hurt her waist in quick multi-rounds in the second game, but fought on in pain, extending her advantage in the last two games. Ding repeatedly served in a squat position which was unfamiliar to her opponent, finally winning 11-3, 12-14, 12-10, 11-4.
In the the men's team semifinal, China defeated the host nation Japan 3-0. In the doubles match, China's Liang Jingkun and Xu Xin played against Koki Niwa and Maharu Yoshimura. The two Chinese athletes played in a fast pace in the first game, with Liang frequently dominating with overhand balls. The Chinese players also showed great concentration and won applause from the audience for their wonderful save. Meanwhile, the Japanese players displayed excellent handling of the balls' landing points, but there were many mistakes in their counterdrive in the third game. Finally, the Chinese team won 11-6, 11-6 and 11-6.
The next singles match unveiled between China's Fan Zhendong and Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto. Fan was good at catching Harimoto's mistakes and won the first two games. In the third game, Harimoto made aggressive attacks, and the two fought to a 7-7 draw. Fan changed the course of the ball in the backhand for a crucial point and won the match 11-7, 11-4 and 13-11.
The last men's singles saw China's Xu versus Japan's Yoshimura. In the first two games Xu grasped the pace of the competition in his hand. In the third game, Yoshimura started to fight aggressively, taking the lead 5-1. Although Xu gained three points to reach 4-5, he was disrupted by a time-out by the Japanese team. Yoshimura continued to play aggressively in the second half of the game and won the third game. Xu did not give any chance to his opponent in the fourth game and finished with a huge margin of victory at 11-9, 11-5, 6-11, 11-1.