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(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF)
On the penultimate day of competition at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London, China and Japan each won their Semifinal and advanced. This script was repeated in both the Men’s and Women’s events.
There was drama in the Men’s draw this year – and as an interesting irony, that drama was largely caused by the Chinese and Japanese squad losses in the Stage 1A group rounds. Both Japan and China lost twice in that stage – affecting their seeding in the knock out rounds. Sweden and France ended up as the top two seeds but Sweden lost to Taipei in the Quarterfinals, and France fell to China today in the Semifinals. That China/France match could have been the Final had the seeding after group play been as expected. In today’s match, Wang Chuqin narrowly beat Flavien Coton 3-2, Felix Lebrun evened the score with a win over Lin Shidong, Liang Jingkun won a 3-2 decision over Alexis Lebrun, and then Wang Chuqin shut the door with a 3-1 win over Felix Lebrun. France has a deep squad with the Lebrun brothers and Gauzy, and in this tournament Favien Coton has proven to be one of the most improved players. But even with all of that talent, China is so strong that it takes (at least) two unexpected upset wins to take down the top seeds – and today that did not happen. In the other half of the draw, Japan dominated Taipei 3-0. Despite a strong tournament, Lin Yun-Ju had no answer for Tomokazu Harimoto (losing 1-3), and Matsushima and Togami each won 3-0. Tomorrow it will be China versus Japan in the Final.
The Women’s draw lacked the drama present on the Men’s side. Top seeded China topped Poland 3-1, Sweden 3-0, Korea Republic 3-0, and today dominated the fourth seeded Romanian squad 3-0 in the Semifinals. And while 1 faced 4 in the top half of the draw, the second seeded Japanese team ran over third seeded Germany 3-0. Japan has actually been the only team thus far more dominant than China – winning all four of their team matches 3-0. Tomorrow the top two seeds will face off – China versus Japan in this Final as well.
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