WUXI, East China, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Hosts China failed to secure a mixed doubles title ahead of Friday's final at the Asian table tennis championships, while all Chinese paddlers eased past their opponents in singles play on Thursday.
Fang Bo/Wang Manyu were out-classed 3-2 by their Japanese rivals, while the other Chinese pair Zhou Yu/Chen Xingtong claimed a relatively easy victory, beating Kenta Tazoe and Miyu Maeda, also from Japan, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10.
The provisional pair of Fang and Wang was strained to five sets after losing the opening set, but led 10-7 in the decider over Masataka Morizono and Mima Ito before the Japanese duo took four points in a row and won 13-11.
"I felt so sorry to lose the semifinal encounter," said Fang after the match. "After all, we are the better players individually comparing to the Japanese opponents."
"There's no one to blame but ourselves," he added. "We could have played more patiently by the end of the game."
His partner Wang Manyu, however, declined to mourn on the passing games.
"No regrets," she said. "We performed at our normal level. It's just the result that we are not satisfied with. We had our chance but failed to seize it."
Both of the Chinese pairs were formed to partner with each others on a temporary base just for the Asian championships. They just trained for about one hour together as partners.
Earlier on Thursday, the men's and women's doubles draws saw all pairs from the all-time leading hosts making the quarterfinals, namely Fan Zhendong/Lin Gaoyuan, Fang Bo/Zhou Yu in the men's event and Zhu Yuling/Chen Meng, Wang Manyu/Chen Ke on women's part.
And in the evening, all Chinese paddlers advanced into the men's and women's singles third round of the last 32, including world No. 46 Lin Gaoyuan, the only Chinese who didn't receive a bye from the first round.
