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China set for table tennis sweep
China won its third gold medal of the world table tennis championships when defending champion Zhang Yining beat compatriot Guo Yan in the women's singles final on Thursday.
Zhang, the world number one and Olympic champion, beat Guo, the world number eight, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7, 4-11, 11-8, 13-11. Guo saved one match point when she trailed 10-9 in the final game, clawing back to 10-10 and 11-10, but the 21-year-old was unable to clinch victory from the composed Zhang. The match was played in front of a buoyant home crowd, who could relax knowing that the gold medal was guaranteed for China. China took the men's doubles title when Wang Hao and Kong Linghui beat Timo Boll and Christian Suess of Germany 11-9, 11-3, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6. "It went very smoothly and the key strategy was winning the first set," Kong said. "They weren't able to come up with any way of handling us." The silver claimed by the German pair, 24-year-old Boll and 19-year-old Suess, was the first European medal of the week-long tournament. "Obviously we are disappointed," said Boll. "But I think we will soon realize our silver medal was a great achievement." China, seeking a clean sweep of all five gold medals, won its first on Wednesday when Wang Liqin and Guo Yue beat compatriots Liu Guozheng and Bai Yang in the mixed doubles final. The Chinese team won all the gold medals at last year's Olympics in Athens apart from the most sought after, the men's singles. The men's singles semifinals take place on Friday, with China's Wang Liqin playing Oh Sang Eun of South Korea and Ma Lin of China facing Denmark's Michael Maze. "It would certainly be great to sweep all five events," said China's head coach Cai Zhenhua. "But it is the men's singles title we will do our utmost to clinch." The men's singles final will be played on Friday evening. China also have three pairs in the women's doubles semifinals on Friday.
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