(By Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF)
Top Seeds Advance, Sweden Surprises, and Team Korea(S)
The knock out stage at the Liebherr 2018 World Table Tennis Team Championships will come to a close this weekend and the top two seeds remain unbeaten in both the Men’s and Women’s events.
The women’s semifinals were played on Friday and pitted top seed China against Hong Kong on one side of the bracket and Japan versus the unified Korean team in the other bracket. China advanced relatively easily, with perhaps the biggest news of the match being that they lost a set, only the second time that has occurred in the tournament. Hong Kong’s Minnie Soo defeated China’s Ding Ning in the opening set and for the first time in the tournament, China was behind. However, China did not trail in any of the following three sets, ultimately defeating Hong Kong 3-1.
The biggest story of the day was Unified Korea’s match against Japan. On Wednesday, South Korea and North Korea were scheduled to play each other and in an act of good will and diplomacy, the delegations from the two countries petitioned the ITTF to combine the teams. This request was granted and the unified Korea team advanced to the semifinals to play second seeded Japan. There was much anticipation and coverage of the match, and all involved are hopeful that the political implications of this cooperation will be positive – but the competition itself included less excitement. Japan was in control from the beginning with a 3-0 victory in the opening set, and 3-2 victory in the second, and a 3-1 win in the final set. Japan and China, the top two seeds, will play each other on Saturday to decide the championship.
In the Men’s Championships Division, Germany and China each advanced easily to the semifinals. China defeated Austria 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Germany lost their opening quarterfinal set (Hugo Calderano over Bastian Steger), but won the next three sets to advance 3-1 over Brazil.
Germany will face a Korean team that handily defeated Japan 3-1. Korea entered the tournament as the fifth seed, but has now defeated France (the fourth seed), and Japan (the third seed). Next up will be top seeded Germany.
China will face the tournament’s “Cinderella” team, Sweden. Host Sweden entered the tournament as the ninth overall seed. In the group stage they upset Hong Kong (No.7), and in the knock out round they defeated Taipei (No.6) before winning the quarterfinal over England (No.12). Sweden will have their work cut out for them as they face a strong and deep Chinese team featuring three of the top five players in the current world rankings. With the Swedish fans behind them, it should be one of the loudest matches of the tournament.
The Men’s seminfinal matches will be played on Saturday with the finals to follow on Sunday.
Visit ButterflyOnline.com for updates throughout the event.
