Tokyo Olympics: Hong Kong to face Germany as China sets up table tennis final with Japan
- Top seeds storm into gold-medal contest with hosts after beating Rio 2016 silver medallists 3-0 in rematch of final from five years ago
- Petrissa Solja wins only game for Europeans as Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu look to avenge mixed-doubles defeat to Mima Ito and Jun Mitizani
Hong Kong’s coach and players were right – the women’s team table tennis bronze medal match will be against Germany after they were beaten 3-0 by top seeds China.
It was a repeat of the Rio 2016 gold medal match-up, which China also walked away from as winners.
Germany’s team – Han Ying, Shan Xiaona and Petrissa Solja – was unchanged from five years ago and again could not cope with the challenge of world No 1 Chen Meng, No 2 Sun Yingsha and No 4 Wang Manyu.
World No 5 doubles pair Wang and Chen swept aside No 16 ranked Shan and Solja in the doubles opener, with little resistance after the opening game. It ended 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-4).
Sun then swiftly saw off world No 20 Han in similar fashion. That also ended 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-9).
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Finally, Chen took on world No 17 Solja in singles in what was a must win rubber for the Europeans.