Ma, Zhang Winners In Table Tennis World Cup

　　中国乒乓球队在周日结束的世界杯锦标赛上再次包揽男女冠军。在杭州进行的决赛中，马琳后来居上以4-2击败了希腊选手获得男单冠军，而世界女子排名第一的张怡宁则战胜了老大姐王楠赢得了女单冠军。

HANGZHOU, Zhejiang Province: China's Ma Lin scored a World Cup championship hat-trick on Sunday while Chinese women's players continued to dominate with their eighth World Cup title.

Defending champion Ma repeated his come-from-behind victory of 2003, posting a 4-2 win against Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece, whom he also defeated in the 2003 World Cup. This is Ma's third cup. His first was in 2000. In the women's final, world No 1 Zhang Yining followed her impressive performance at the Athens Olympics, dethroning her older-teammate and defending champion Wang Nan in a 4-2 victory during an all-Chinese final. Kreanga made it to the men's final after overpowering Joo Se-hyuk of South Korea 4-2 while Ma advanced earlier after a lop-sided 4-0 victory over younger compatriot Wang Hao, the Athens Olympic finalist. The first set of the final went like last year, as Ma got a big scare and lost the opening set without much resistance. It took Ma some time to find his game, trailing 1-2 after three sets. Then he began to get back on track, winning decisive points in the following sets. "I did not feel very well at the start. But I was always confident that I have an advantage over him on my skills. Anyway, I won many times against Kreanga," said Ma. In the men's bronze medal match, Wang got off to a comfortable start after beating Joo in a seven-set thriller. "I am satisfied with Ma's performances in the tournament. His form is good and he did a very good job in controlling the match," said Chinese men's head coach Liu Guoliang. The women's final had no suspense as Olympic champion Zhang and Wang's respective both scored semi-final victories against Tie Yana of Hong Kong and Li Jia Wei of Singapore on Saturday. They secured China another cup title before playing the final. The Chinese women have won the previous seven cup titles with Wang taking three and Zhang winning two. Zhang was nervous right into the match and trailed 3-9 in the first set. But the 23-year-old came back strongly and won the gripping first set. Wang Nan took one set back but continued to struggle, failing to deal with Zhang's high speed and power. Zhang said winning against her fellow paddler, who has won most of their previous encounters, was not a matter of skill. "It is always difficult to play Wang Nan. She is one of the best players in the world," Zhang said. "The skill is not the point to win the match. It is more important for me to keep my mind on the match and not to think about too much else."