WTTC 2008: Germany and Singapore suffer defeats

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

There were problems for both the third and fourth seeds in the group stage matches of the Championship Division of the Men’s Team event at the Evergrande World Team Championships in Guangzhou, China on Wednesday 27th February 2008; both Germany and Singapore suffered defeats.

Seeded three, Germany lost by three matches to one against the very impressive Japanese outfit of Jun Mizutani, Kan Yo and Kaii Yoshida, whilst Singapore suffered at the hands of the Hong Kong trio comprising Tang Peng, Li Ching and Ko Lai Chak.

Matters started well for Germany with Bastian Steger recovering from an opening game deficit to beat Jun Mizutani but that was their only success. Dimitrij Ovtcharov lost to both Kan Yo and Jun Mizutani whilst Christian Süss suffered at the hands of Kaii Yoshida.

A team effort from Japan whilst for Hong Kong, it was very much Tang Peng who was the architect of Singapore’s downfall. He beat both Yang Zi and Gao Ning whilst Ko Lai Chak overcame Cai Xiao Li to add the one further Hong Kong success. The one win for Singapore came from Gao Ning who beat Li Ching.

Defeats for the third and fourth seeded teams but not for the top two with China defeating Austria by three matches to nil and Korea overcoming Chinese Taipei with loss of one individual match; that being the defeat of Ryu Seung Min, the reigning Olympic champion, by Chuan Chih-Yuan.

Meanwhile, in the Championship Division of the Women’s Team event, matches in the group stage came to a conclusion with the top four seeded teams all remaining unbeaten.

In the final stage one series of matches, top seeds China beat Sweden, second seeds Singapore overcame Ukraine, third seeds Hong Kong accounted for Thailand and fourth seeds, Japan doused French hopes.

The teams finishing in second and third places in the group stage duly progressed to the first round where the top four seeds receive byes.

Tense moments were therefore the order of proceedings late in the evening of the fourth day’s play with Romania, Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands duly booking their places in the quarter-finals.

All four fixtures went the full five match distance. Romania overcame Germany, Austria secured victory against the United States; the Netherlands excelled to win against Korea and Hungary ended Croatian medal dreams.

At the quarter-final stage China plays Romania, Hong Kong meets Austria, Japan confronts Hungary and Singapore faces the Netherlands.

ITTF Press Release

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WTTC 2008: Germany and Singapore suffer defeats

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