China and Germany finish group phase in style

Top seeds China and Germany ended the group phase with their fifth straight win in the quarter-finals of the world team table tennis championships held Wednesday in Dormunt, Germany, while Sweden booked a surprising place in the second round.

Sweden lost the first three matches of the tournament, but after two wins against Slovenia (3-2) and Greece (3-0) the Swedes were able to finish next to Greece and DPR Korea on seven points.

Their positions were determined by the results of the three against each other, which were slightly on the advantage of Sweden. As a result the Swedes captured the third place.

The 45-year old Jorgen Persson, the individual world champion of 1991, is playing his last world championships and he is happy it ends this way. "This feels great," he told Xinhua. "We felt we were out of the tournament after the first losses. We thought we had no chance but the results went our way. It could be very nice to play in the big hall again. it's big fun, really nice."

China, which was already certain of the first place and a direct quarter-final berth, finished the group phase with its fifth win.

In Group A of men's actions, China defeated Hong Kong of China for their fourth consecutive win in the championships. Reigning individual world champion Zhang Jike started with a 3-0 victory against Leung Chu Yan (11-5, 11-7, 11-8), and Wang Hao also notched up an easy win by beating Li Ching 11-6, 11-6, 11-9.

The closest battle was between Ma Lin, world number seven, and Cheung Yuk. The Olympic champion from China came from one set down to wrap up the match 7-11, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4.

"Ma had some problems today," said coach Liu Guoliang. "He should have done better, anyway he controlled the match finally. The Hong Kong team is a traditional powerhouse. They have skills and experience and thus are difficult to play against."

Earlier of yesterday, the Chinese women handed Romania its first defeat in Group A. Ding Ning dropped the opening game but still defeated Bernadette Szocs 6-11, 11-7, 11-2, 11-4. Guo Yue beat Daniela Dodean 11-8, 11-5, 11-7, while Li Xiaoxia sail through with an 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 victory against Camelia Postoaca.

Hosts Germany were the first to secure a quarter-final berth in Group B on Tuesday and also finished the Group phase with their fifth 3-0 win, over Serbia. The trio of Christian Suss, Bastian Steger and Patrick Baum recorded a victory over the Serbia team comprising Marko Jevtovic, Aleksandar Karakasevic and Zolt Pete.

Timo Boll was spared for the remainder of the tournament, starting in the quarter-finals. He did not want to speak about a big final against China yet.

"Now we are in quarter-final and the Chinese team is also in quarter-final," he said. "But both of us have not reached the big final yet. There are still more matches remaining. I hope that we can be more confident and play better."

Portugal posted a 3-0 victory over neighbors Spain and secured the second place in Group B. The third place in the group went the way of Singapore who like Portugal finished on eight points but Portugal, having beaten Singapore earlier in the tournament, gained the highest placing.