In the first contest of the day, on Monday 25th February 2008, in the Womens Team event at the Evergrande World Team Championships in Guangzhou, China had experienced a stumble.
The duel against North Korea saw Wang Nan lose the opening match to Kim Jong.
Later in the day, exactly the same scenario befell the mens team. They suffered an early reverse.
In their meeting with Romania, Wang Liqin lost to Andrei Filimon before they recovered to record a three-one victory.
Chen Qi came to the rescue to beat Adrian Crisan, Wang Hao overcame Constantin Cioti and Wang Liqin came out all guns blazing to defeat Adrian Crisan and bring matters to an end.
Foto de Remy Gros
More Famous
"I didn't think that Wang Liqin would lose to Andrei Filimon", said Liu Guoliang, the Chinese Men's Head Coach. "Adrian Crisan is the more famous player, so I thought it might be possible that Wang Liqin would have problems against him."
Adrian Crisan has enjoyed success against Chinese players, notably Wang Hao some four years ago but against Chen Qi he was beaten for speed and Wang Liqin was a man with a mission.
Passive
"Wang Liqin played too passively against Andrei Filimon, thats why he lost, continued Liu Guoliang. We are the home team and you must forget rankings; today Wang Liqin did not lose because of his techniques, he lost because mentally he was not sufficiently positive.
Success for China in Group A and there was also success for Austria and Italy, both teams recording three-one victories.
Austria and Italy
Austria defeated Croatia with Werner Schlager overcoming both Andrei Gacina and Roko Tosic whilst Chen Weixing defeated Borna Kovac; the one win for Croatia came from Roko Tosic against Robert Gardos.
Similarly, Italy overcame Belgium with Yang Min beating both Jean-Michel and Philippe Saive, whilst Mihai Bobocica also accounted for Philippe Saive. It was not the latters day. He lost both matches in five games.
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Articol publicat de Ian Marshall pe site-ul Federatiei Internationale de Tenis de Masa.