YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese men's team overcame their Japanese opponents to advance into the Asian Table Tennis Championships final here on Wednesday.
In the final later Wednesday, China will face South Korea who sent Chinese Taipei team packing (3-0) in the other semifinal match in the day.
World's No. 1 Xu Xin fended off a surprising resistance from Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto in the opening game as better skills and richer experience helped Xu secure the win 5-11, 11-7, 11-8 and 12-10 despite a late surge from Harimoto.
In the second singles match, Fan Zhendong eased past Maharu Yoshimura 13-11, 11-8 and 11-6 and Liang Jingkun sealed China's victory with a 11-6, 14-12 and 11-1 win over Kazuhiro Yoshimura in the third match.
"I think Tomokazu Harimoto managed to adapt very fast. He has high attack quality that gave me a lot of pressures in the first game. So I played more cautious since the second game and gave him back more pressures," Xu Xin told Xinhua.
The biennial Asian championships are held here from September 15 to 22, participated by 249 players from 34 Asian countries and regions.
