Table Tennis: China, Germany breeze into last four

DORTMUND, Germany: Top seeds China and hosts Germany booked their places in Saturday's semi-finals of the men's world team table tennis championships by recording commanding last eight victories.

China's Zhang Jike, Ma Lin and Ma Long showed Austria no mercy in Friday's quarter-final as the defending champions romped to a 3-0 victory while Germany also blasted past Sweden with a clean-sweep.

For a place in Sunday's final, the Germans will now play Japan, who beat Singapore 3-1 in their quarter-final, while China take on South Korea, who beat Taiwan 3-1 in the last eight.

During the team semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics, Germany dug deep to beat the Japanese 3-2 before losing the final to China 3-0 and Boll said he had strong memories of the semi-final four years ago.

In the women's competition, China romped into the last four with a clinical 3-0 win over Poland, while Hong Kong also blitzed the Netherlands by the same margin and will meet the Chinese in Saturday's semi-finals

An astounding recovery by Kim Kyung Ah clinched victory for South Korea against Japan as she sealed a 3-2 win over Kasumi Ishikawa with a battling display.

South Korea will now meet defending champions Singapore in Saturday's other semi-final after they knocked the Germans out with a 3-2 victory.

The world championships doubles as an Olympic qualifier with London places up for grabs for the highest-ranked nation from each of the six continents. (AFP)