XU XIN and Fan Zhendong earned China its second event from the men’s doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships in Dusseldorf, German, on Sunday.

Xu and Fan defeated number one seeds Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima of Japan 4-1 to win the men’s doubles title.

Morizono and Oshima had their chances with multiple game points in the second and fourth game, but were unable to convert any of them.

They also narrowly lost the first and the third games 11-9.

“This is my first time winning gold in doubles,” Fan said. “I’m very happy and lucky to be here.”

In the men’s singles quarterfinals, Olympic and world champion Ma Long beat Germany’s superstar Timo Boll 4-2 in a thriller.

Boll put up a great show but Ma had all the answers for the 13-time German champion. He won in six games (11-5, 8-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9).

“This was my toughest match yet in the championship,” Ma said. “It’s sad that we lost in the doubles and hope this win will be a great match for the table tennis fans to remember.”

Ma and Boll had paired up in the doubles but lost in the round of 16 to Fan and Xu.

In the other matches, Lee Sang-su of South Korea secured the first spot in the men’s singles semifinals with a 4-1 win over Wong Chun-ting of Hong Kong, China. Fan beat Japan’s Niwa Koki 4-1 and Xu ousted Japan’s 13-year-old sensation Harimoto Tomokazu with an identical score.

(Xinhua)