Xu Xin and Zhang Jike of China survived a thrilling match against Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima of Japan to progress to the men's doubles semi-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships at the Suzhou International Exhibition Centre here on Thursday.
In the most exciting match of the round, the Japanese players took an early lead, winning the first game 11-9, but the Chinese duo got back, levelling it by winning the second. In the third, it looked like Xu and Zhang began to impose their will on the match, winning it 11-7, reports Xinhua.
In the fourth, the teams traded points until Japan took a time-out at 6-5 and with their tactical changes implemented, Morizono and Oshima went on to win the game and even the match at 2-2.
With the match in the balance at two games all and 9-9 in the fifth, it was the Japanese players who showed battling quality as Oshima ripped two spectacular cross-table forehand winners to get his team within one game of the victory.
In the sixth game, Xu and Zhang built a two-point lead at 8-6 when the Japanese took a time-out but Morizono-Oshima could not stop the Chinese team from progressing as China pushed on to force a deciding game.
At 8-8 in the final game, Japan won a long rally and then in the following point Zhang put the ball into the net to give Morizono and Oshima two match points. Incredibly, the Japanese duo could not convert either, letting Xu and Zhang off the hook and through to the next round.
In a surprisingly close match, World No.12 team of Lee Sangsu and Seo Hyundeok of South Korea were pushed all the way by Cazuo Matsumoto and Thiago Monteiro of Brazil. The South Koreans finally beat their opponents in seven games and set up a semi-final clash against Xu-Zhang.
The other semi-final will see Japanese Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa against Chinese Fan Zhendong and Zhou Yu.