China tops seed lists at table tennis worlds

The all-mighty Chinese team tops all the five lists of seeds for the world table tennis championships which will start in Zagreb on Monday.

Three hundred and fifty men, 266 women, including delegates from 140associations represented; that is the size of the entry for the world championships.

China's Wang Liqin and Zhang Yining, the respective men's and women's singles defending champions, are on duty, as are the winners of the women's doubles and mixed doubles events two years ago in Shanghai. However, in the men's doubles event will see new champions.

Women's doubles winners in Shanghai, Wang Nan and Zhang Yining are the top seeds in Zagreb while in the mixed doubles Wang Liqin and Guo Yue, who clinched gold in the Chinese city, top the mixed doubles draw.

The name missing from the list of defending champions is that of Kong Linghui, the man who has won every conceivable major title since being crowned men's singles world champion in Tianjin, China, in 1995.

In Shanghai he partnered Wang Hao to gold but in the last 12 months has retired from international play to focus on coaching duties. In Zagreb Wang Hao partners Wang Liqin, the duo being seed two with reigning Olympic champions, Chen Qi and Ma Lin, the number one seed.

The finals witnessed in Shanghai in 2005 in both the men's and women's singles events could be repeated in Zagreb.

Two years ago top seed Wang Liqin beat Ma Lin in the men's singles final. The seeded position in Zagreb is reversed with Wang Liqin's name at the foot of the draw as opposed to the top.

Meanwhile, in the women's singles event, China's Guo Yan, the runner up at last world championships, is seeded third but is in the lower half of the draw, the half occupied by number two seed, Wang Nan.

Source: Xinhua