Chinese paddlers complete double

The Taipei men’s team, unlike their women counterpart, did better and managed to take one game. The contest was much closer than the final margin but Chinese team with some extra efforts took the game away from Taipei.

Taipei’s 19th ranked Chiang Peng Lung clashed with top-ranked Wang Ling in the first singles. Wang’s powerpacked play was too much for the Taipei. The little flourish that came in the second game came in too late as Wang by then was in complete control.

However the contest of the evening was between world fifth-ranked Ma Lin against 38th-ranked Chuan Chi-Yuan of Taipei. Ma Lin trailed 0-5 in the first game before taking charge. Once Ma closed in on at 7-8, the contest was open.

Chuan came up with dazzling winners in the forehand andused the third ball attack to good results. Down 17-19, Ma unleashed two blistering forehand drives and closed out the game with a backhand job.

Chuan down 0-5 in the second game made no attempt to get near at Ma Lin.

China fielded Yan San for the out of sorts Liu Guozheng got the third point with a hard-fought three game win over Chang Yuan Su. Yan opened out to take a 15-10 lead in the first game and held on to win.

Chang played aggressively in the second game even finding winners in the third ball attack. The lead of 5-0 enabled him to pin Yan with a mixture of loop drives and backhand counters. Chang raised a big cheer when he took the second game.

The decider turned out to be a battle of nerves. Chang was a little tense with a victory just in sight. But Yan slowly came into his own and attacked with all his might to hold the little edge midway through from 15-15, Yan raced away to a deserving win.

Results (final)

Men: China bt Chinese Taipei 3-0 (Wang Ling bt Chiang Peng Lung 21-12 21-18; Ma Lin bt Chuan Chi-Yuan 21-19 21-10; Yan San bt Chang Yuan Su 21-15 13-21 21-17.