China still sets the gold standard in table tennis as its all-conquering players lifted the country's 14th world men's team championship on Sunday to add to its 15th women's crown won Saturday.
(The Chinese women's team hold the Corbillion Cup on the podium during the awarding ceremony for the women's final match at the 47th World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar March 7, 2004. The Chinese women's team won the Corbillion Cup by defeating their Chinese Hong Kong's counterpart 3-0 on Mar. 6. )
China still sets the gold standard in table tennis as its all-conquering players lifted the country's 14th world men's team championship on Sunday to add to its 15th women's crown won Saturday.
In a replay of Friday's semifinal, a super-star team of Ma Lin,Wang Hao and Wang Liqin gave a 3-0 whitewash to the German team spearheaded by former world No. 1 Timo Boll, winning a back-to-back Swaythling Cup and ensuring a ticker-tape welcome at the Beijing Airport.
The first ever world pingpong championships held in an Arabian country were rematches of the depth of talent. While Boll is the only world-class player in the German team, China has five with MaLin, Wang Liqin and Wang Hao perching 1-2-3 in the world rankings.
When other teams found it hard to gather five competitive players, Chinese officials were racking their brains over the lineup because they have too many good players. Therefore, immensely talented Chen Qi, world No. 6, was relegated to a sparring partner for his elder teammates in Doha, while Hao Shuai,No. 13, and No. 18 Qiu Yike, who upset then world No. 1 Boll in the Paris world individual championships last May, had to stay home.
Thanks to a new format adopted by the International Table Tennis Federation, Germany won the play-off against South Korea to book a rematch with China, which blanked the Germans 3-0 in the early semifinal stage.
A well-prepared Chinese team was just too strong for the Germans in the championship final. Wang Hao stuck to the tactics prepared by a team of advisers and coaches, beating Boll 11-7, 13-11, 11-2 in the first rubber.
Wang was told to follow up his serves with straight topspin attacks and to receive Boll's flat serves with forehand flicks. The tactics worked, giving the 19-year-old Chinese an easy win.
Ma Lin overcame Germany's surprise starter Suss Christian, ranked 92nd in the world, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, and Wang Liqin completed the rout by beating 71st-rated Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7.
"I feel more relieved than happy now," said China's head coach Cai Zhenhua, who knew that Chinese fans had got used to winning and would accept nothing less.
"You may feel bored when I say this. But I really want to thankour supporters and these cities which offered us places for secluded training," Cai added.
The Chinese men's team trained in southeastern city Xiamen and the women's squad honed their weapons in northern city Zhengding prior to the Doha championships. Sports psychologists, researchers and senior coaches were enlisted to help Chinese players whip up form.
Zhang Xiaopeng, player-turned-researcher and China's first PHD in table tennis, has kept track of the German and South Korean teams since the Paris championships last May and convinced the Chinese team, with research papers and numerous videotapes he recorded during international events, that Germany and South Korea, rather than Jorgen Persson's Sweden and Werner Schlager's Austria,were China's major threats.
Chinese coaches took notice, assigning national team players toimitate the play of Timo Boll, South Koreans Ryu Seung Min and JooSe Hyuk.
"It's our job to report the developments in the rest of the table tennis world to the Chinese team," said Zhang. According to Zhang, Boll's life including his marriage, Ryu Seung Min's lethal forehand and Joo Se Hyuk's quick footwork were all among their research areas.
With a silver medal, Germany replaced five-time champion Sweden as Europe's No. 1 power. An aging Swedish team fell to South Koreato finish fourth.
A China vs Sweden final used to be a popular draw. China denied Sweden's fourth straight crown in the 1995 final and won the title again in 1997. Sweden snatched back the cup in 2000 and lost it in 2001.
"I came to watch Sweden-China game but I didn't see it, neither did I see Waldner," Zhang Jun, a Chinese oil worker in Qatar, told the reporter in the Doha International Exhibition Center where the world championships took place.
Legendary Jan-Ove Waldner, as famous in China as in his home country, has been recovering from a leg injury caused by a bar accident and didn't play a game in Doha. He watched in dejection that the team of Jorgen Persson, Peter Karlsson and Jens Lundqvist were eliminated by South Korea on Friday.
China is now looking beyond the desert and sea state of Qatar to the Olympics birthplace of Athens.
"The Doha event was just a rehearsal for us and the Olympics is more important," said China's head coach Cai Zhenhua.
The Chinese women's team head coach Lu Yuansheng admitted too that the Athens Games was his top priority. "We found our problems here and will solve them before the Olympics," he said.
Lu was admonished by China's table tennis chief Xu Yinsheng, former ITTF president, although the Chinese women beat their Hong Kong counterparts 3-0 in Saturday's final.
"Your players seem to lack motivation and their styles lack variety," Xu told Lu, referring to the five Chinese players who all play in European handshake style.
"If you want to play well in Athens, you'd better solve these problems," he added.
