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South Korea lost to China in the quarterfinals of the men’s table tennis team event at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
The team of Cho Dae-seong, Jang Woo-jin, and Lim Jong-hoon went down 3-0 against the world No. 1 team at South Paris Arena 4 in Paris, after losing one doubles and two singles matches in succession.
China, a heavy gold medal favorite, boasts three of the world’s top seven singles players in world No. 1 Wang Chuqin, world No. 2 Fan Zhendong and world No. 6 Ma Long.
China has won every men’s team gold medal since the event was added to the Olympics in 2008.
Cho and Jang dropped the opening doubles match to Ma Long and Wang Chuqin 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-5). The South Koreans led 6-4 in the second game before going down and never threatened in the third game after trailing 8-2.
In the second singles match, Fan defeated Lim 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6), with the South Korean putting up a good fight before coming up short.
Wang then closed out South Korea by beating Jang 3-1 (11-7, 6-11, 11-8,
11-9) in their singles showdown.
South Korea was trying to win its first medal in the men’s team event since taking home silver in 2012.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
