Chinese Hong Kong secured the fourth quarterfinal berth after finishing off Belarus in a hard struggle at the world team table tennis championships on Thursday.
Hong Kong pitted 27th-ranked Tang Peng, veteran Li Ching and KoLai Chak against Vitaly Nekhvedovich, former European champion Vladimir Samsonov and Evgueni Chtchetinine of Belarus.
Ko, the left-handed penhold looper, fended off a fired up Belarus, gaining one crucial point for his squad following a 0-2 trail on set.
Coming back for his second hit, a determined Tang dispensed with his dogged rival 3-1, levelling the score 2-2.
Fueled by his teammate's victory and a storm of cheers from the spectator, 11-ranked Li dig deep to overpower Samsonov, locking the fourth quarterfinal berth for Chinese Hong Kong.
Li, who lost two points to Denmark Tuesday, suffered his second defeat by succumbing to Singaporian Gao Ning in the fourth round group match.
Meanwhile, China's star-studded men's team breezed over Italy resorting to flexible performance of Ma Lin, Wang Hao and Wang Liqin within 80 minutes.
Trailing 1-2 on set, Wang Liqin adapted himself quickly to the competition rhythm taking the fourth 11-4.
Wang stunned the audience by losing to 74-ranked Romanian Andrei Filimon in the second round competition Monday.
Also in the afternoon, Singapore outlasted Spain 3-1 resorting to former Chinese paddlers Yang Zi, Gao Ning and Cai Xiao. Despite Cai's loss in the third set, 10th-ranked Gao seized his chance to edge out Marc Duran in the deciding stage, finishing off Spain 3-1.
Twenty-four countries and regions are vying in four groups in the week-long tournament. Earlier, China, South Korea, Japan have entered the last eight and the squads ranking second and third have to strive for the remaining four posts.
Source: Xinhua
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