GUANGZHOU: China steamrolled over its opponents, signaling the intentions to take a stranglehold on the world team table tennis championships which kicked off yesterday.
Ma Lin of China competes during the men's preliminaries of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou February 24, 2008. [Xinhua] |
China's star-studded men cruised over hapless Belgium 3-0 while the women, also laden with champions, earlier dispensed with Russia 3-0 in under an hour.
China, current men's and women's team title holder, is viewing these championships as the perfect warmup for this year's Olympics in Beijing, where nothing short of total dominance will suffice.
Ma Long, the world No 4, obliged at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, taking 15 minutes to dismiss his opponent while Ma Lin also wasted little time.
Belgium hoped they were in with a shot when world No 1 Wang Hao failed to show on court, prompting mock celebrations from the European bench, before Wang came running and quickly got down to business.
"The (previous) match was over so quickly and the practice hall is such a long way away that I couldn't get there on time," Wang said.
South Korea, runner-up at the last world championships, had a tougher time against a tenacious Poland in Group B before prevailing 3-1.
South Korea, boasting Olympic champion Ryu Seung Min, is determined to derail the Chinese juggernaut to claim their first team title.
Germany downed Russia 3-1 in Group C in its first outing, despite being without their star, injured world No 5 Timo Boll.
Greece also overcame Belarus, led by three time European champion Vladimir Samsonov, in an enthralling encounter in Group D.
On the women's side, China's world No 1 Zhang Yining dispatched Russian Svetlana Ganina.
Li Xiaoxia quickly followed her teammate's lead, and Wang Nan, one of the sport's most decorated ping-pong players with 20 world titles, soon brought cheers from the partisan crowd with her every winning shot.
Wang, the oldest member of the China team at 29, said she was not feeling the pressure despite needing to perform at these championships to help her bid to qualify for the Games.
"This was a good warm up, a good preparation for the competition ahead and I feel good," Wang said. "Every competition is important to me, including the Olympics."
Hong Kong, runner-up at the last two world championships, got its campaign off to a flying start, downing Belarus 3-0.
"It is a good start for the team, but there are still difficulties that we have to overcome during the competition," Jiang Hua Jun said after her victory.
