Women's Table Tennis Singles Quarterfinals
Field Narrowed to Four
The field of contenders for the women's table tennis singles gold medal has been whittled down to four.
Remaining alive in the tournament, DENG Yaping, 1992 Olympic women's singles and doubles gold medalist, swiftly defeated Germany's Nicole STRUSE in three straight games. STRUSE, 1996 European Champion, was not able to employ her usual strategy against the very strong world champion. This victory catapulted DENG into the semifinals. Fourth-ranked player in the world, LIU Wei (CHN) also easily advanced to the semifinal round of competition. KIM Hyon, 87th in the world, was no match for LIU. Hyon won the match 21:16, 21:9, 21:13.
CHEN Jing (TPE) had little difficulty advancing to the semifinals, soundly defeating Hong Kong's CHAN Tan Lui in three straight games. The third-ranked player in the world, CHEN was the 1988 Olympic singles gold medalist.
Coming off a gold medal win in this morning's women's doubles final, QIAO Hong, second best in the world, was the fourth player to advance to the semifinals. QIAO used her strong forehand and backhand to topspin drives to defeat Japan's KOYAMA Chire in three straight games.
The women's singles semifinals are set for 21:00 Tuesday.
"It is impossible to return DENG's attack - her serves, her topspin and even her drop shots," said Nicole STRUSE (GER) after her loss to DENG Yaping (CHN) in the women's singles quarterfinal round.
Rematch of 1992 Olympic Men's Doubles Finals in Semifinal Action
It was like deja vu. For the second time in as many Olympic Games Steffen FETZNER and Joerg ROSSKOPF of Germany met China's LU Lin and WANG Tao along the way to the medal round of men's doubles competition. In Barcelona, they met in the gold medal round with the Chinese pair defeating the Germans. This time, the pairs met in the semifinal round with the same result. The Germans seemed no match tonight against a strong LU/WANG combination, who won in three straight games. LU/WANG advance to Tuesday's gold medal round against fellow countrymen KONG Linghui and LIU Guoliang (CHN), who defeated the Korean pair LEE Chul-Seung and YOO Nam-Kyu in three straight games. FETZNER and ROSSKOPF (GER) will meet LEE and YOO (KOR) in the bronze medal match Tuesday.
Battles Between Countrymen for Women's Doubles Medals
The quest for Olympic medals in the women's doubles table tennis competition came down to two battles between countries.
In a showdown featuring the Chinese teams DENG Yaping/QIAO Hong, 1992 Olympic doubles gold medalists, and LIU Wei/QIAO Yunping, the players gave a crowded house a display of championship table tennis. LIU/QIAO surprised the defending gold medalists in the first game by taking the win. That was just the wake-up call DENG/QIAO needed to put their game into high gear. Playing close to the table and using wise shot selections, DENG and QIAO won the next three games for the match and the gold medal.
Another duel between countrymen occurred to determine the bronze medalists. The Korean team PARK Hae-Jung and RYU Ji-Hae (KOR) challenged another Korean duo KIM Moo-Kyo and PARK Kyoung-Ae (KOR). In this match play at times seemed more like a preliminary matchup rather than the challenge for the bronze medal. PARK and RYU (KOR) jumped out to an early 5-point lead in the first game, which they won. They quickly won the second game, 21:8. Struggling to stay alive, KIM and PARK (KOR) fought to come back from a deficit early in the third game. They tied it at seven points a piece and never looked back, winning the game 21:14. A number of unforced errors led to the demise of KIM and PARK. PARK and RYU took advantage of these errors and quickly won the final game and the bronze medal, 21:13.
Final Score: Gold - DENG Yaping/QIAO Hong (CHN); Silver - LIU Wei/QIAO Yunping (CHN); Bronze - PARK Hae-Jung/RYU Ji-Hae (KOR).
"We first won a gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics and we were fortunate to win again," said DENG Yaping, 1996 Olympic women's doubles gold medalist. "It was a long four years between then and now. We worked very hard for this medal. I am very happy."
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