Chinese women's table-tennis world champions are wrestling with their teammates for passes to a World Championship that is already proving quite a trek away.

 

Twenty-one athletes competed in 20 matches in the first round-robin phase in Zhongshan City, southern Guangdong Province from Monday to Thursday, leaving no player unbeaten.

 

The newly-crowned Asian champion, Guo Yue ranked top among the athletes, by winning 17 matches, followed by world champion Zhang Yining and Li Xiaoxia, both of whom lost four games.

 

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Veteran Wang Nan recorded a demoralizing eight losses and was therefore seeded no higher than No.10. 20-year-old Peng Luyang was the darkest horse in the round. She dominated the games against big names including Zhang Yining, Guo Yue and Wang Nan ranking in fourth place.

 

The inner-team Round Robin was introduced by the team coaches to pick the most capable players to represent China in the World Championships scheduled in May in Zagreb, capital of Croatia.

 

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The top 14 players in the first phase, together with another two athletes selected by the coach team, will compete in the second phase to open next month.

 

The Men's qualifiers starts on Friday in Beijing. Sixteen players will compete.?

 

(CRI February 10, 2007)