On the evening of December 7th, Beijing time, the Chengdu Table Tennis Mixed Team World Cup continued, and four teams came on stage again for two matchups, namely, South Korea VS Sweden and Germany VS China Taipei. Among them, the second-seeded German team won 8-2 under the leadership of Olympic runner-up Shan Xiaona, ending the losing streak.
As for Sweden, which played inextricably with Japanese players not long ago, the performance was poor this time. In the end, the fourth seed South Korea won 8-2, and it was not an upset-please see below for details.
The battle between South Korea and Sweden is quite interesting. Although the overall strength of the former is obviously stronger, it is mainly the female players who are stronger. As for the male athletes, they have little advantage over Sweden. However, after the start of the competition, the Korean mixed doubles team Zhang Yuzhen/Tian Zhixi took the lead, losing 1-2 to Carlson/C Carlberg (10-12, 11-6, 6-11), and the Swedish team successfully gained the lead.
However, in the second set, South Korea quickly succeeded in counterattack. As a marginal main force, Li Shiwen quickly won 11-9, 11-9 and 11-8 in a row, sweeping Sweden’s top player Berg Sterlon. This shows the great strength gap between the two teams of female athletes.
The third set was the battle of focus. South Korean Lin Zhongxun played against Swedish men’s singles No.1 Carlberg. Not long ago, Carlberg almost overturned Zhang Benzhi and lost 2 points in the deciding game. However, this time, he lost 7-11, 8-11 and 8-11, and the Swedish team was forced into a desperate situation.
In the fourth set of men’s doubles, the former world number one and now world number two Korean team Zhang Yuzhen/Lin Zhongxun played Karlsson/A Carlberg. As a result, the first two ended the battle with 11-7, and the total score of South Korea beat Sweden 8-2.
Germany is the second seed in this competition. However, Shan Xiaona, the Olympic runner-up, is the only core player. Bohr, Ochalov, Francesca, Qiu Dang, Han Ying and Mittham are absent one after another. In terms of strength, they are not even in the top four. They have lost to Sweden and France in succession before, but the China Taipei team they met this time is not at its peak.
Like Germany, the China Taipei team did not have the top three athletes Lin Yunru, Chuan Chih Yuan and Zheng Yijing, so the group stage was almost eliminated. Chen Siyu, the number one player in the quarter-finals, kept resting, and it was not realistic to win Germany.
In the first set of mixed doubles, German meissner/Winter played against China Taipei’s Yang Jiaan/Li Yuhuang. In the first set, the first two players lost 3-11, but then they won two 11-7 turnovers in a row, successfully gaining a 2-1 lead in the total score.
The second set was the battle of focus, in which Shan Xiaona and Chen Siyu, the strongest main players of the two teams, played against each other. Although Shan Xiaona is 40 years old, but the fast break is still powerful, he won the first prize with 11-7, but he was defeated by 8-11 in the second game. In the deciding game, Shan Xiaona rallied and finally ended the battle with 11-7, helping the German team to expand its advantage.
In the third set of men’s singles, Walther, a German player, played against Ye Zhiwei of China Taipei Team. The former’s offensive quality was obviously higher, and he soon ended the battle with 11-9, 11-8 and 11-5. In the fourth set, German women’s doubles team Shan Xiaona/Winter made persistent efforts and finally defeated Chen Siyu/Huang Yihua 11-6, thus defeating China Taipei 8-2 with a total score, ending the previous losing streak.
In this way, after losing in a row, Germany finally saved the face of the second seed, so what kind of ranking and achievements will they finally achieve? Let’s continue to wait and see!
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