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China charge, SKorea champion dumped in Olympics table tennis
2008-08-21
BEIJING (AFP) - China's table tennis giants marched into the quarter-finals of the men's singles Thursday, but Olympic champion Ryu Seung Min was sensationally dumped from the tournament on a day of upsets. Hong Kong veteran Ko Lai Chak stunned the Athens gold medallist, racing to a three-game lead before holding off the South Korean's late charge to eventually win 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 4-11 5-11, 12-10. Ryu, who upset China in their most dominant sport four years ago in Athens to win gold, said he was kicking himself for getting off to such a slow start in his first match of the tournament. "I was too hard on myself towards the end of the match, as I was so keen to win. I feel very regretful about losing the first three games so easily," the world number eight said. Ko said he had decided beforehand to attack aggressively from the start to try to cause a surprise. "But when I was close to victory, I actually started to become shaky and to lose confidence. I became more conservative because I was scared of losing the fourth game," the 32-year-old said. Ko, who won silver in Athens in the men's doubles but is ranked just 32 in the world in singles, continued to make a mockery of the seedings, later dumping Germany's 11th seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4-1, to move into the quarters. China's three champions, brimming with confidence after taking gold in the team event, stormed over their opponents in Thursday's two rounds of matches, as they gun for men's singles gold, the only title they failed to win in 2004. China's world number one Wang Hao -- who lost the gold medal match in Athens to Ryu after a bout of nerves -- downed Japan's Kan Yo 4-1, after earlier walking over Austria's Chen Weixing 4-0. Three-time world champion and teammate Wang Liqin followed suit, downing Austria's Werner Schlager 4-0 after earlier thumping Poland's Lucjan Blaszczyk by the same margin in just 26 minutes. China's Ma Lin, a four-time World Cup winner, steamrolled Kalinikos Kreanga from Greece 4-0 after earlier defeating Bojan Tokic from Slovenia 4-1. But there was heartache for Vladimir Samsonov from Belarus, one of the few Europeans considered capable of derailing the Chinese. The fourth seed was ground down in a thriller against Sweden's veteran Jorgen Persson, who at 42 has made no secret of his desire to win an Olympic medal at probably his last Olympics. The Swedish champion, who has played in every Olympics since the sport was introduced at the Seoul Games in 1988, edged out Samsonov 4-3, bringing roars from the crowd. "I have great respect for him. He played very well. He is fantastic, what can I say," Samsonov said. Germany's fifth seed Timo Boll was also knocked out 4-1 in a major upset by South Korea's Oh Sang Eun who moves into Friday's quarter-finals.
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