KOBE (Japan), Sept 20: World doubles champions Wang Nan and Zhang Yining crashed out of the women’s singles, but China took four semifinal berths at the Japan Open table tennis tournament on Saturday.
Zhang bowed to fellow Chinese Guo Yan 11-7, 12-10, 14-12, 6-11, 11-7 in the third round, while Wang, Sydney Olympic and world singles champion, went down to Guo Yue 6-11, 11-13, 11-4, 14-12, 11-7, 11-7 in the quarterfinals.
Guo Yan went on to beat Li Jia Wei of Singapore to set up a semifinal match against Li Nan, who eliminated the last European challenger in the field,Tamara Boros of Croatia, in four games.
Guo Yue will play Niu Jianfeng, who bested Japanese national champion Aya Umemura 11-3, 12-10, 11-5, 11-6.
In the men’s singles, China’s Ma Lin remained on form as he eyed his third straight title in three weeks, adding to the Korea Open and China Open he won earlier this month.
The second seed outgunned Jorgen Persson of Sweden 10-12, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-5, 11-5 and then eliminated defending champion Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-1, 12-10 in the quarter-finals.
On Sunday, Ma will take on Oh Sang-Eun of South Korea, the winner over Chuan Chih-yuan of Taiwan 5-11, 12-10, 11-6, 13-15, 11-7, 11-3.
Timo Boll of Germany outclassed Hao Shuai of China 11-4, 10-12, 8-11, 13-11, 11-9, 12-10, while China’s Wang Liqin downed Chiang Peng-lung of Taiwan 12-10, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 4-11, 11-6, 11-9 to book the other semifinal clash.