The Chinese men players played well, said Liu Guoliang, coach for the Chinese men's table tennis team at the 48th World Table Tennis Championships on Monday.

At a press conference after Chinese men players beat Romania 3-0 in the first round of the group competitions, Liu said that the whole team staged an excellent form.

"The group contests were very good chances for the Chinese players to practice and adjust themselves," he added, "All the five players may have chance to play in the group matches."

Liu listed Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands as challengers to the Chinese male players in group competitions.

Wang Liqin, holder of world and Olympic titles, played first against Romania's Adrian Crisan winning the match 3-0.

Ma Lin and Chen Qi both beat their rivals Andrei Filimon and Constantin Cioti respectively at 3-0.

Wang Liqin told reporters that he reacted a bit slow in the first two games, but found himself in form afterwards.

The Chinese women paddlers didn't play as well as the men players. Top Chinese table tennis official Cai Zhenhua said that the performance of his country's women players count only score 70 marks out of 100, despite they  also won the first round group contests.

Cai made the comment after the Chinese players, ZhangYining, Wang Nan and Guo Yan beat their Czech rivals at 3-0.

Cai said that Zhang and Guo were in quite good form, but Wang was slow to find her best form.

The coaches would talk to her afterwards to help her better handle the remaining competitions, he said, adding that the group match was also a process of adjusting.

Zhang Yining, world and Olympic champion, defeated the Czech Republic's Jana Dobesova at 3-0 without any surprise.

Novice Guo Yan played the last singles but had an easy win against Matina Smistikova at 3-0.

But veteran Wang Nan, former world and Olympic champion, had a hard time in playing against her Czech rival Renata Strbikova.

Wang lost her first two games at 8-11 and 7-11 and gradually adjusted herself into form in the last three games by winning the third and fourth games at 11-4 and 12-10.

In the fifth game, Wang overtook Strbikova from 1-3 down and went all the way to wrap the match 11-3.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2006)