Germany, Portugal survive longtime contests at table tennis team worlds
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The second day of the 50th World Team Table Tennis Championships saw two fierce matches between European teams, both lasting over three hours.
The women's contest between Netherlands and Germany in Group B started on Monday at 10 a.m. local time and ended at 1: 47 p.m., with Germany dramatically turning defeat into victory.
Things began quite well for the Netherlands, the reigning European champions, as Li Jiao defeated Kristin Silbereisen and then Li Jie beat Wu Jiaduo.
However, Germany's Elke Schall brought the surprising turning point to the match by defeating Linda Creemers, paving the way to the final comeback.
Then, Wu Jiaduo returned to the court and won the fourth game. At last, Kristin Silbereisen's victory over Li Jie triggered the cheerful shouting and applause of German fans from the audience stands.
"I lost the first two games against Li Jie because I played too fast, too much at high risk," Silbereisen told media after the match, "In the second game, I led 10-8, but still lost the game. From then on, I tried to play more assured. I tried to stay calm."
Another stunning competition in the second round was between men's teams of Portugal and Austria, which lasted three hours and forty minutes. Portugal survived the longtime contest, with Marcos Freitas finishing a seesaw match with Robert Gardos 15-13.
The time-consuming match delayed the following contests, but it was still quite eye-catching, even for the Chinese male paddlers who were waiting for their match outside the court.
"The game Portugal versus Austria is exciting," Liu Guoliang, head coach of Chinese men's team, told Xinhua. "It heated the atmosphere. More importantly, we would always like to appreciate the performance of dark horse, like the performance of Portuguese team."
As for Chinese team, the paddlers still enjoyed comfortable wins in the second round.
Guo Yan, Liu Shiwen and Li Xiaoxia defeated Croatian players by three matches to nil, while Wang Hao, Xu Xin and Ma Lin overcame Polish rivals by the same score.
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