TOKYO, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China defeated South Korea 3-1 in the final of the men's team event at the 2019 Table Tennis Team World Cup here on Sunday.
Photo: VCG
This year's World Cup is a test event for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and also adopts the same best-of-five competition system of the Olympics in which the first match is a doubles, followed by four singles matches.
World No. 1 Fan Zhendong won two points for the all-time leading Chinese in Saturday's final.
The 22-year-old outscored Jang Woo-jin 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 in the second singles match before he beat Lee Sangsu 11-8, 11-4, 11-8 in the fourth, with strong service and great counter-drives.
"The competition is of great value to my training," Fan said. "It helps me improve my condition and confidence."
Xu Xin and Liang Jingkun lost the opening doubles match 11-8, 11-4, 10-12, 7-11, 10-12 to South Korea's Lee Sang-su and Jeoung Young-sik.
"We played in the matches as if they were the Olympics though the rings were not posted. The coaching staff also asked us to play this time as the Olympics. It was a simulation process to accumulate more experience," Xu said, pointing out that the result reached the team's expected goal.
Liang, however, made up with a victory in the third singles match, winning over Jeoung 11-9, 8-11, 10-12, 15-13, 11-8.
"In addition to winning the championship, our team went through a lot of training, especially training at the venue of the Tokyo Olympic Games," said Qin Zhijian, head coach of the Chinese men's team.
