ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships: Hong Kong beat Taiwanese to reach semi-finals
- City’s women’s team had earlier guaranteed themselves a place at this year’s Olympics in Paris
- Zhu Chengzhu, who starred for Hong Kong in the previous championships, wins the deciding match to overcome the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei
Hong Kong’s women booked a place in Friday’s semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships by beating the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei in a clash that went to the wire.
The city’s team had already swept aside Poland 3-1 in the round of 16 on Wednesday to set up the last-eight encounter on Thursday.
Getting that far guaranteed them a place in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris even before the quarter-final took place, but they proceeded to advance their medal ambitions in the present competition, too.
Facing the Taiwanese, who are ranked fourth in the world, the fifth-ranked Hongkongers took the first match in straightforward fashion in Busan, South Korea, as Doo Hoi-kem saw off Chen Szu-yu 3-0.
Hong Kong then suffered a setback, though, when Zhu Chengzhu lost by the same margin to Cheng I-ching.
