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China wraps up ITTF Pro Tour titles
Olympic bronze medalist Wang Liqin crashed the triple World Cup holder Ma Lin 4-1 Sunday in Beijing to be crowned for the third time in the ITTF Pro Tour finals, as China made a second consecutive clean sweep in the 240,000 US dollars tournament.
Wang, the former world number one, secured the last of the titles on offer here with a five-set victory (11-8, 11-8, 3-11, 11-9 and 11-4) following wins in the other three all-Chinese finals. Defending champion Niu Jianfeng failed to hold down teenage teammate Guo Yue, losing 4-2 (11-8, 12-10, 11-3, 12-14, 14-16 and 11-8) in the women's singles final, where the China's super talentGuo stood out as a pretender to bring the world women's table tennis into new generation. The 16-year-old sensation outclassed the 26-year-old Wang Nan 4-1 (11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7) before taking the title. Also in the doubles, Chinese pairs clashed against each other, and Ma Lin/Chen Qi and Wang Nan/Zhang Yining came out as crown fitters, winning 4-3 (7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9) and 4-1 (11-6, 11-7, 11-3, 8-11, 14-12) over Kong Linghui/Wang Haoand Niu Jianfeng/Guo Yue respectively. The sole native European left after Saturday's matches, Timo Boll, was ousted by Ma Lin in the semi-finals, beaten 4-3 in a seven-set clash. It required all of the former top-ranked paddler's guile to defeat the German talent, Boll, who had topped the world rankings for 9 months since January, 2003. Ma came back from 1-3 down and finally emerged triumphant from the Europe versus Asia confrontation 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-5,11-7, 14-12 after missing two set points in the decider. "I've prepared for a difficult game since Boll has been in formfor months," said Ma. "With 1-3 down, coach Liu Guoliang told me to concentrate more, I took his advice and I made it." "Serve and spin are my hallmark, and I made use of that, which troubled Ma a little bit," commented Boll. "But in the end he played better and better, while he's clever and lucky. "It's good to play close game since last times I lost to him easily. I'll prove more to the Chinese that I'm a better player." Both players demonstrated full range of their renowned strategic manoeuvring around the table in some scintillating exchanges. Ma, the Olympic doubles champion who suffered an early exit in the singles last August in Athens, raced into a 7-4 lead in the final set and held on to 10-8. Boll scored two points on his serves before sturdy-minded Ma beat 1.78-meter Boll to the ground 14-12 to seal the 4-3 victory.
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