Hong Kong seal place in quarter-finals
The Hong Kong men's team advanced to the quarter-finals after they finished first in their group at the world championships in Bremen, Germany, yesterday.
Playing their final match in group D, the SAR team, who needed the best possible result to send them to the top of the group, routed Slovakia 3-0.
Hong Kong were tied with Greece before the match, with both teams having scored three wins and one defeat, but the latter failed at their final hurdle as they were handed a cruel 3-2 defeat by the Russians.
In the other three groups, pre-tournament favourites China maintained their clean sheet in group A with their fifth straight win, an easy 3-0 victory over the Italians, while South Korea in group B and Germany in group C also achieved similar victories.
The three world powerhouses joined Hong Kong in the last eight while the eight teams who finished second and third in their respective groups must compete in a play-off to decide the remaining four quarter-final places.
With a direct quarter-final berth at stake, Hong Kong sent possibly their best squad of Li Ching, Ko Lai-chak and Cheung Yuk out against the Slovakians, who only scored a single win against Taiwan in their previous match. And the trio did not let the team down.
Li was given some trouble by Lubomir Pistej, but he still won in five sets, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5. Ko then made no mistake by defeating Peter Sereda in straight games 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, with Cheung sealing the tie with a 3-1 win (11-6, 11-4, 2-11, 11-7) over Jaromir Truksa.
The SAR team came fifth at the last event in Doha two years ago, which was their best result in the world team event so far.
Meanwhile, China became the first team to reach the semi-finals in the women's team event as they easily trounced North Korea 3-0 last night.
