Ma Lin, Wang Hao enter last eight at men's World Cup ( 2003-10-10 09:44) (Xinhua)
Chinese stars Ma Lin and Wang Hao booked their quarter-final berths at the
men's World Cup table tennis tournament on Thursday, while title holder Timo
Boll of Germany is on his way home.
Ma Lin, the 4-0 winner over Belgian Jean-Michel Saive earlier this afternoon,
beat Chuan Chih-Yuan from Chinese Taipei 4-1 (7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, 12-10) in
Group A.
The world top singles player Ma said: "I had lost to Chuan before, but now I
know how to play him. I've got confidence from this victory."
Wang Hao became the first player in Group D to enter the last eight after he
ousted Austria's world champion Werner Schlager and Germay's Torben Wosik,
runner-up at European Championships, both in straight sets.
Schlager, who did not play for more than three months duo to a right toe
injury, appeared rusty against Wang's fierce attacks but still pushed South
Korea's Ryu Seung Min to seven games, losing narrowly 4-3 (11-9, 4-11, 11-6,
11-8, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4).
Leading at the beginning, defending champion Boll had many chances to send
off Chiang Peng-Lung of Chinese Taipei, but he missed them all and had to
concede his second game of the day with 4-3 (11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 9-11, 11-3,
10-12, 5-11).
"Chiang played better today and I did not show my best," said the 22-year-old
Boll. "I had chances but I made too many mistakes. Just as I said, it is not
easy to win the back-to-back World Cup."
In his third and last group match on Friday, Boll will meet Johnny Huang of
Canada, who beat Chiang 4-3.
"My last hope is to beat Huang 4-0," said Boll. "If Huang ousts Alexei
Smirnov, who gave me first defeat, and Smirnov beats Chiang, I may enter the
quarter-finals, but the chance is slim."
Group C was also in a chaos after former world champion Wang Liqin was beaten
by Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece 4-2 (7-11, 11-4, 9- 11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-13).
Wang, Kreanga and world silver medalist Joo Se Hyuk of South Korea both had
one victory so far while Joo crushed Kreanga 4-2.
Wang needs to overcome Joo in his third match to move into the
quarter-finals.
