The Taiwan men’s team yesterday blanked Madagascar to ease into the knockout rounds of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Busan, South Korea, while the Taiwan women’s team finished undefeated atop Group 4.
On the final day of group stage matches, Taiwan handily toppled Madagascar, with world No. 31 teenager Kao Cheng-jui dominating world No. 113 Antoine Razafinarivo 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 at table one at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center.
Twenty-year-old Huang Yan-cheng followed with an 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 win over Fabio Rakotoarimanana, while world No. 97 Feng Yi-hsin wrapped up the match, beating Jonathan Nativel 11-3, 11-4, 11-8.
Photo: Reuters
The win puts Taiwan, who are 3-1 in Group 5, into the knockout rounds with Japan and the Czech Republic, who they edged on Monday to stay in contention, after they were beaten by seven-time champions and group leaders Japan on Sunday.
Taiwan — who finished with a bronze in the 2014 edition, but in 2022 crashed out without a win in Chengdu, China — got off to a difficult start against the Czech Republic, with world No. 111 Lubomir Jancarik overcoming 19-year-old Kao 11-5, 11-7, 24-22.
However, Olympic medalist and world No. 8 star Lin Yun-ju evened the score, making short work of Tomas Polansky and beating him 11-2, 11-7, 11-4.
Twenty-two-year-old Lin saved the day again with an 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 victory over Jancarik, after world No. 35 Chuang Chih-yuan fell 11-1, 12-10, 4-11, 11-7 to Jiri Martinko.
Kao wrapped up the match with a win over Polanksy, who was listed as injured.
In women’s action, Taiwan on Monday eased past the US with a 3-1 win to blast into the round of 16, joining China, Japan, Germany, South Korea and Romania as the undefeated teams in the group stages.
After Wang Yi-ju lost the first match to Tiffany Ke 11-4, 11-6, 11-8, world No. 67 Li Yu-jhun, who competed in the bronze-medal winning Taiwan team in Chengdu, bounced back from a first game loss to beat Emily Tan 9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-4.
Taiwanese star Cheng I-ching — who won a bronze in the mixed doubles at the Tokyo Games with Lin — blanked Kayla Goodwin 14-12, 11-5, 11-3, while Li downed Ke 11-4, 11-8, 11-5.
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