China’s world No. 1 and hot favorite Zhang Yining became the first player to reach the women’s singles fourth round at the world table tennis championships yesterday.
The Beijing Olympic gold medalist was in good form as she demolished Daniela Dodean of Romania to move a step closer to regaining the title she won in 2005.
She led a Chinese onslaught as Guo Yan, Li Xiaoxia, Guo Yue, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen all advanced.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Guo Yan lost a game for the first time this week but still easily beat Park Young-sook of South Korea, while Li outclassed Elke Schall of Germany, again in five games.
Defending champion Guo Yue brushed aside Huang Yi-hua of Taiwan, while Ding defeated Wu Jiaduo of Germany and Liu saw off Japan’s Mikie Tasei.
Also joining the Chinese contingent in the fourth round is Krisztina Toth of Hungary, Yu Meng Yu of Singapore, Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa and Czechs Renata Strbikova and Iveta Vacenovska.
Li Jiao of the Netherlands also made it through after a tough match against Sun Bei Bei of Singapore.
In the men’s singles, Chinese world No. 1 Wang Hao beat Thomas Keinath of Slovakia in the third round.
Three-time world champion Wang Liqin struggled to beat Adrien Mattenet of France, while Ma Long comfortably won against Zoran Primorac of Croatia.
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out