The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Germany tops Japan to enter finals

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Sport - Olympic Games

Germany tops Japan to enter finals

BEIJING: Germany barely held off a determined Japanese squad on Saturday, winning 3-2 to advance to the gold-medal match of the table tennis men’s team event.

Led by Timo Boll, the World No. 6, the Germans were on the offensive for the majority of the contest, driving to the sides and corners of the table and making the Japanese chase the ball.

But the unflashy Japanese waited for the Germans to make mistakes and mixed in a few of their own searing shots to force a decisive fifth game in three of the matches.

The deciding match pitted Boll against No. 63 Seiya Kishikawa, whose misfired returns were a big factor in the German victory. Boll had a shiny sheen of sweat on his forehead apparently more related to nerves than exertion.

After the winning shot, Boll fell to the ground and his teammates and coach rushed onto the court and piled on top of him. In the women’s team competition, South Korea and Japan will play for the bronze medal after each won contests against difficult opponents. The Koreans beat the United States 3-0 in the bronze-medal semifinal, although two of those matches went to five games. — AP

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