Ma Long of China serves to Sathiyan Gnanasekaran of India during the men's teams round of 16 match between China and India at the 2022 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Oct. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
China advanced to both the men's and women's quarterfinals with easy wins at the World Team Championships.
CHENGDU, China, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Hosts China's men's table tennis team snatched their fifth straight victory against India to set up the men's quarterfinals against Sweden at the World Team Championships here on Thursday.
Indian men's table tennis team surprisingly downed Germany in the group stage, but there was not much they could do against China in the 3-0 defeat.
"It's different in the knockout stage, we played more aggressively, and every match is like a final," said world No.2 Ma Long.
"The next game against Sweden will be more difficult, as they are very powerful," Ma added. "But we are more experienced, and I trust our team."
Truls Moregard of Sweden hits a return during the men's teams round of 16 match against Martin Allegro of Belgium at the 2022 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Oct. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
Sweden also smashed Belgium in straight sets, but world No.6 Truls Moregard edged world No.96 Martin Allegro 3-2 in a difficult match.
Portugal and Germany both beat their opponents 3-0 to enter the men's quarterfinals, and they will meet Japan and France, respectively.
In the women's quarterfinals, world top three players Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu eased past their rivals 3-0 to help China smash Portugal 3-0, only conceding a total of 36 points to their European opponents.
In the semifinals, China will meet Chinese Taipei who edged Singapore 3-2.
Sun Yingsha of China hits a return during the women's teams quarterfinal against Ines Matos of Portugal at the 2022 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Oct. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)
Su Huiyin and Zhu Chengzhu helped Hong Kong, China to lead with 2-0, but they lost the last three games to Germany, who will meet Japan in the semifinals.
Japan defeated Slovakia 3-0, in which world No. 6 Mima Ito eased past Ema Labosova who only got 13 points in three sets.
