Taiwan’s women’s table tennis team yesterday crushed Australia 3-0 in their round-of-16 clash to advance to the quarter-finals.
In the opening doubles match, Taiwan’s Chien Tung-chuan and Chen Szu-yu beat Australia’s Michelle Bromley and Melissa Tapper 11-4, 11-3, 11-7.
Cheng I-ching then defeated Jee Minhyung 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 in their singles match, before Chen battled to a tight 6-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6 victory over Tapper to set up a quarter-final against China in Paris today.
Photo: Reuters
Germany battled past the US to secure their quarter-final spot with a 3-2 win in a clash lasting more than 2 hours, 30 minutes.
After claiming the first two matches, the higher-seeded Germans lost two singles as the US leveled the contest.
However in the decider, Germany’s 18-year-old Annett Kaufmann won the final two games 11-9, 11-8 to beat US first-time Olympian Rachel Sung 3-1 and take her team through.
“I think we can take a lot from the match and even though it’s really disappointing and heartbreaking, it’s also just as inspiring and motivating for us,” four-time US Olympian Lily Zhang said.
In the men’s team competition, China’s Ma Long made his debut in the doubles team with Wang Chuqin, who beat Indian duo Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar 3-0.
“This is my first game in Paris. I need to quickly get into the right state through the first match. I think I did well today,” Ma said.
At 35, Ma has won team golds at his three previous Games and back-to-back men’s singles titles in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, becoming the most successful Olympic table tennis player of all time.
Wang, who faced his first opponent since his shock elimination by Sweden’s Truls Moregard in the singles, brushed off questions about the paddle incident that went viral.
His paddle got broken by excited photographers who rushed to the court to capture the moment of his win in the mixed doubles gold medal match.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS