China's Hong Kong swept into the women's team semifinals of the world table tennis championships here Thursday after knocking out Austria 3-2 in a marathon battle that lasted three hours.
It was the sixth consecutive victory for the Hong Kong women, who emerged as group winners after trouncing a series of European teams in straight games.
Hong Kong's Jiang Huajun, singles champion in the 2007 Asian Cup, blew a 2-1 lead, making unforced errors against a 16th-rankedbut more composed Liu Jia, who took the first game 3-2.
Tenth-ranked Tie Ya Na and 11th-ranked Lin Ling were made to sweat for their 3-1 victories over determined Austrian players. Tie showed up again in the fourth match but failed to seal Hong Kong's success.
Cheered on by noisy spectators, Jiang finished the job by crushing an exhausted Li Qiangbing, ranked 71, in straight sets.
Hong Kong women, second to China's national team at the last two worlds in Doha and Bremen, aimed for their third consecutive silver in Guangzhou, Hong Kong women's head coach Li Huifen said earlier this week.
"We view the championships as a perfect warm-up for the Beijing Olympics and will endeavor to get the best result here," she said.
Hong Kong does not hide its intention to take chances of derailing the Chinese juggernaut. Li said the goal of winning a silver would not stop her team from challenging China.
"China is the strongest, but not invulnerable," she said. "No one is ever-victorious. It depends on who will have a chance (of beating China) though it is very difficult."
Japanese women, winners of Group D, also secured a semifinal place by overpowering hapless challengers from Hungary 3-0. They bowed their thanks to the spectators after the dominant victory.
The third-place finishers in Bremen have kept up their winning streak since the start of the championships in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Krisztina Toth, doubles semifinalist at the Sydney Olympics, was the only one of the Hungarian squad that caused a bit of trouble to the mighty Japanese. But she lost to a determined Ai Fukuhara.
Both the following two matches turned out to be lopsided affairs, with Sayaka Hirano and Haruna Fukuoka wasting little time in finishing off their opponents.
In other games, Singapore, the winner of Group B, reached semi-finals after whitewashing the Netherlands, which had upset a tenacious South Korea late Wednesday.
China will play Romania late Thursday.
Source: Xinhua
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