Table Tennis: China beats Germany to claim world team title

DORTMUND, Germany: China won the men's world team table tennis championship title here with a 3-0 victory over hosts Germany in Sunday's final to continue their domination of the sport.

After China's men won gold at the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008 when the team event made its debut, this is the sixth time in succession China has won the world team title and the 18th overall.

Despite the score, Germany put up a brave fight as their top player Timo Boll came back from 2-0 down to level the first match before losing 3-2 defeat to Zhang Jike.

Team-mate Dimitrij Ovtcharov was steam-rollered 3-0 in the second game by Ma Long, but in the third game Patrick Baum took the first game against Wang Hao before falling to a 3-1 defeat.

Germany have lost to China in both the previous world team and Olympic finals and the Chinese can sweep the tournament on Sunday night when their women's team takes on defending champions Singapore in the other final.

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)