China's women roll through Germany
China continues to cut through the table tennis field like the proverbial hot knife through butter, its women's team surging past Germany to reach the gold medal match.
After a 3-0 win over Austria in the first round and a 3-0 win over Singapore in the quarterfinals, what would No. 3 seed Germany bring to the table?
Not enough.
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China collected another 3-0 win and will meet No. 2 seed Japan in the final.
Wang Manyu and Chen Meng won their doubles opener 3-0, then Sun Yingsha did the same. Chen lost the first set of the decisive match but collected a 3-1 win nonetheless.
China will meet Japan for the gold medal on Thursday, hours after Germany and Hong Kong contest the bronze medal match.
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China's men cruise by South Korea
Whether it's Japan or Germany across from China in the team final, there's no question who will be favored to claim the gold medal.
China smashed South Korea on Wednesday to reach the men's gold medal match, adding another name to the list of nations it sent home without as much as a single match won.
Xu Xin and Ma Long breezed to a 3-0 doubles win and Fan Zhendong also swept to a 3-0 win before Ma Long won his first two sets against Lee Sang-su only to see the South Korea knot the match at 2-2. Ma completed the win with an 11-6 fifth-set victory.
Germany's men topple talented Japan
The German men's team is the reason why the two gold medal matches aren't both China-Japan, as they downed the host nation 3-2 in the second semifinal.
Timo Boll and Patrick Franziska claimed the doubles point in a thrilling match that went to five sets, but Harimoto Tomokazu evened the score for Japan with a win over men's singles bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
Boll returned to the table against Mizutani Jun in Match 3. He took three straight sets after dropping the first to make the score 2-1, but Harimoto again pulled Japan level with an impressive singles win over Franziska that saw him come back from two sets down.
Ovtcharov finished the job for Germany, winning the all-important final match against Niwa Koki in straight sets and securing his nation's place in the final.
Germany will take on China in the gold medal match on Thursday, with a potential rematch in store between Ovtcharov and Ma, who provided viewers the match of the tournament in the men's singles semifinal.
