(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-26 22:42

GUANGZHOU - China's star-studded women's team kept up their winning streak with a 3-0 win over the United States in the fourth round of the world team table tennis championships on Tuesday.

China's Guo Yue returns a shot to Wang Chen of the US during the women's preliminaries of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in China's southern city of Guangzhou February 26, 2008. [Agencies]

It was the first defeat the US suffered at the competition in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, after cruising over Russia, Croatia and Sweden.

China's Wang Nan, one of the sport's most decorated players with 20 world titles, displayed the sangfroid of a true champion and dwarfed 20th-ranked Gao Jun, who the Chinese women said was a strong rival.

The 29-year-old veteran took the first match 11-4, 11-8, 11-8, seeming unaffected by her shock defeat to a much lower ranked player from DPR Korea on Monday.

"My coach asked me to draw a lesson from yesterday's defeat and so I was better prepared for any possible difficulty today," Wang said after the match.

"By the way, I did not cry over the defeat," she told reporters."I'm not that sentimental."

Wang's head coach Shi Zhihao also spoke in praise of her. "Wang felt great pressure after the defeat but it was excellent of her to recover rapidly," he said.

Cheered on by a home crowd of 4,000, Guo Yue, singles and mixed doubles champion in the Zagreb worlds, quickly followed Wang's lead, crushing 30th-ranked Wang Chen 11-4, 11-4, 11-7.

Li Nan of the US haplessly met fifth-ranked Guo Yan and came up against a granite wall of staunch defence and incisive attack. Guo won 11-1, 11-8, 11-5.

Once again the Chinese team was confident enough to leave world number one Zhang Yining on the bench.

The US had been a bystander in the competitive world of table tennis for four decades before former Chinese national team players Gao and Wang made it become a force to be reckoned with.

Gao, 39, was the doubles runner-up in the Barcelona Olympics and the doubles champion in the 41st worlds, while Wang, 34, was the team champion in the 44th worlds.

"Wang plays very well and has rich experience, and she is often in fine form," said Guo Yue. "She well understands what we think about."