China's table tennis team celebrate after defeating Germany to claim their 10th consecutive title in the men's final at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on October 9, 2022. Photo: VCG

China's men's table tennis team defeated their German opponents to claim their 10th consecutive title in the final at the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sunday.

It was also a record-extending 22nd time for China's men's team to have lifted the Corbillon Cup in history, a day after the women's team also triumphed.

The last team having stopped China in a men's team final at worlds was Sweden in 2000, said the Xinhua News Agency.

Sunday's final was a repeat of the 2018 version and marked the sixth time that China and Germany met in the world title contest, with China prevailing on each occasion, it said.

Fan Zhendong appeared for China in the first match to play against Benedikt Duda of Germany. Duda had a strong start in the first game to lead 5-2, but Fan went ahead steadily and struck sure blows to score a 5-0 run. Then he continued to pressure the opponent by changing the line quickly and took the first game 11-8, the media reported.

Fan showed more exquisite skills in the second game and established an early lead of 6-2. Duda managed to keep the deficit from growing even bigger with more forceful backhand hits, he failed to return a hit by Fan when the score was at 10-8, watching the opponent sit on a 2-0 lead.

Fan turned on his forceful mode in the third game but made too many mistakes which were exploited by Duda to gain the lead 9-7 after the 7-7 draw. In response, Fan again resorted to his quick changing of lines to score three consecutive points before sealing the deal with a strong forehand hit. His victory helped China lead 1-0 in the final.

Ma Long was the second player for China and his opponent was Dang Qiu of Germany. As 2022's men's singles champion in Europe, Qiu matched Ma in every play in the first game until the score reached 9-9. Ma then scored a serve and forced a failed play by the opponent to take the first game 11-9.

Ma grew more aggressive in pressuring in the second game and soon built a 5-1 lead. Though Qiu managed to tie the score 5-5, he only had one point in the following of the competition, losing the second game 6-11.

Qiu won the third game 11-9 by speeding up in hitting. In response, Ma took the offensive from the beginning of the fourth game, allowing only one point by Qiu. The dominant 11-1 win gave Ma victory of this match 3-1 and extended China lead to 2-0 in general.

Wang Chuqin played for China against Kay Stumper of Germany in the third match. He had a good start in the first game to lead 4-1 and kept the lead until the end of the first game, winning it 11-7. Stumper had more forceful hits in the second game to keep the competition close at the beginning. After the score reached 4-4, Wang began to return faster and added more backhand hits to score three points in a row. Stumper gave tit for tat with quick backhand attacks. In the end, Wang claimed his second game 11-8 with one serve and one return.

Wang followed up victory with hot pursuit, beginning the third game with a 4-0 lead. He was more careful this time, making Stumper work hard for every of the four points he got in this game. In the end, Wang won this game 11-4, putting China on the winner's platform for the 10th consecutive time.

Agencies