China dominates at table tennis worlds

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) -- Olympic gold medalist Zhang Yining defeated Kasumi Ishikawa on Sunday to set up an all-Chinese semifinals at the table tennis world championships.

The top-seeded Zhang beat the 16-year-old Japanese player 11-4, 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 and will meet Liu Shiwen in the women's semifinals. Liu defeated Iveta Vacenovska of the Czech Republic 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, 17-15.

Li Xiaoxia beat Dang Ye-seo of South Korea 11-9, 11-4, 2-11, 11-9 11-6 and will face Guo Yue in the other semifinal match. Guo defeated Feng Tianwei of Singapore 7-11, 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 8-11.

The men's semifinals will also be an all-China affair with Ma Long, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin and Olympic champion Ma Lin all winning their quarterfinal matches.

Earlier Sunday, Li Ping and Cao Zhen of China defeated Zhang Jike and Mu Zi 11-6, 4-11, 11-7, 9-11, 13-11, 11-8 to win the gold medal in mixed doubles.

China was expected to dominate the championships after winning all the gold medals in table tennis at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese players occupy the top-four seeds in both the men's and women's singles.

In the women's doubles quarterfinals, top-seeded Guo and Li defeated Ai Fukuhara and Sayaka Hirano of Japan 11-6, 11-9, 11-3, 12-10.

Japan, however, did reach the semifinals of men's doubles after Jun Mizutani and Seiya Kishikawa defeated Gao Ning and Yang Zi of Singapore 9-11, 11-2, 11-4, 4-11, 11-5, 13-11.

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