PARIS, 24 May 2003 — China won the first of what could be a clutch of gold medals with Ma Lin and Wang Nan’s victory in the mixed doubles at the Table Tennis World Championships here yesterday.
Watched on television by an estimated 300 million fans back home they beat compatriots Liu Guozheng and Bai Yang 4-3 (9-11, 10-12, 11-0, 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8) in front of a sold-out Bercy arena. China, who executed a clean sweep of gold medals at the past two championships, are favorites to win the women’s singles and doubles, and men’s doubles with Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus Europe’s one big hope of landing the men’s singles.
This was Ma Lin’s second mixed doubles title, but the first for China’s second top rated woman and defending singles’ champion Wang Nan.
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Zhang Yining was one of five Chinese players to win through to the women’s singles quarterfinals here yesterday, brushing aside the challenge of Lu Yen-Feng.
Zhang, who took over from Wang Nan at the top of the rankings in January, came through her latest test in four superbly executed sets, dropping just 14 points against the girl from Taiwan in the 18 minute rout.
Europe’s admittedly slim hopes of its first woman’s singles gold since 1955 rest with Croatia’s Tamara Boros, who got the better of Romanian Otilia Badescu, after Belarussian Viktoria Pavlovich fell to China’s third seed Niu Jianfeng.
Zhang, the 2002 Asian Games champion who has not lost a set at Bercy all week, meets Japan’s Ai Fukuhara in the semis. The teenage sensation who first started playing at the age of three continues to woo the Paris public, beating Korea’s Lee Eun-Sil 4-2 in her fourth round tie. Fukuhara’s angelic demeanor belies a ruthless will to win as evidenced when she served out the second set with a rare ace.
Lee took the third and fourth sets but the high school student at the other end of the table, who conceded to feeling a shade nervous before her first championships, won the next 11-6 to send Lee packing.
“I heard my teammate An Konishi cheering me on from the crowd, that helped me,” said Fukuhara who at 14 years and six months is the youngest player here. “My age may be a problem for my opponents but not for me,” said the cool headed youngster.
Boros, whose trademark high service almost reaches the Bercy rafters, has a quarterfinal date later against Chang Jun Gao, a Chinese export to the United States who handed out a 4-0 drubbing to Korea’s Kim Kyung-Ah.
Pavlovich, wearing a skirt, which is only worth a mention as this is seemingly a new phenomenon in the masculine-influenced world of table tennis attire, dwarfed Niu in terms of physical stature but it was the Asian who held fort at the table.
Niu’s next opponent is Chinese 11th seed Li Ju, who beat Tie Yana of Hong Kong 4-1. China’s Guo Yue, who turns 15 in July, has made a splash at these 47th world championships, the sport’s youngest holder of a professional title owing her presence in the quarterfinals to a 4-0 win over Korean Suk Eun-Mi.
