Olympic-bound pairs win at China's table tennis simulation

NANYANG, China, May 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic-bound paddlers all reaped victories in the doubles events at a domestic table tennis simulation here on Thursday.

To cater to the Olympic team events, the competition underway in Nanyang, central China's Henan Province has added the men's and women's doubles matches to its program, with four pairs contending in each category in a best-of-five format.

Doubles specialist Xu Xin, along with reigning Olympic and world champion Ma Long, came out the winner against Zhou Qihao and Lin Shidong in straight sets in the men's doubles semifinals.

The more experienced duo unleashed their powerful forehands throughout the match.

"We didn't have many chances of competing before the Olympics, especially in terms of the doubles event, so we cherished this opportunity and were focused today," commented Ma.

Xu, who had already played mixed doubles matches in Nanyang, echoed his partner by saying "I can fully concentrate on this match."

Xu and Ma enjoyed a flying start, moving up 10-4 and winning the first set 11-6. Going ahead further at 11-8, Xu and Ma found themselves 8-6 down in the third set, but then snatched five points in a row to secure a final berth.

"We just played point after point and carried out the tactics on the floor. We didn't suffer many mistakes down the stretch. The opponents became impatient, and we took the chance," Ma commented.

In the final they will meet Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin, who dispatched Liang Jingkun and Sun Wen 15-13, 11-4, 11-8.

"We are quite familiar with our opponents' advantages and disadvantages. We were a little hesitant in dealing with the ball at the start, but when we were more determined, we brought the match under our control," Wang explained.

After winning the first set 11-8 in the women's doubles semifinals, Liu Shiwen and Chen Meng faced little challenge from their young opponents, taking the next two sets 11-1 and 11-8.

"As we haven't paired up for a long time and it's our first match here, we hope to have more communication and draw something from it in terms of building our chemistry," said Chen.

Awaiting them in the final are Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu, who rallied past Chen Xingtong/Qian Tianyi 14-16, 11-6, 11-3 and 11-8.

"We will go all out in the final, and hopefully we can play at our best level," said Sun.

Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen will represent China in the newly-added mixed doubles event at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

After finishing the group stage with five wins in as many matches, the highly-anticipated duo lived up to their status on Thursday evening by taking revenge on Zhou Yu and Chen Xingtong 11-9, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8 in the quarterfinals.

Xu and Liu lost to Zhou and Chen in the same stage at the Xinxiang stop three weeks ago.

"That (the loss last time) is a motivation for us so that we can keep a low key. We did well on that today," Xu explained.

In another quarterfinal match, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha kept the Olympic participants' perfect winning record by seeing off Lin Gaoyuan and Zhang Rui in five sets.

Men's and women's singles, along with mixed doubles quarterfinals are slated for Friday, when the men's and women's doubles champions will be determined.