Mixed Doubles Finals results for 2011 GAC GROUP World Championship – Table Tennis
The Mixed Doubles finals of the 2011 GAC GROUP World Table Tennis Championship were contested on the afternoon of May 13. The match was played at the Ahoy Arena Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The final was an all-China affair as the duo of Shuai Hao and Mu Zi competed against their compatriots, the seventhe seeded pair of Zhang Chao and Cao Zhen. In the matchup Zhang Chao and Cao Zhen dominated from the start as they won the first two games of
the match.
The third game remained level at 4-4 but in the final moments of the match Zhang/Cao won the game with a brilliant effort. The only game that Shuai/Mu were able to win was the fourth game. Zhang/Cao showed no mercy and sealed the match by winning the fifth
game. The match score was 7-11, 7-11, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11.
In the semi-finals Zhang Chao and Cao Zhen defeated Hong Kong duo of Cheung Yuk and Jiang Huajun. The Chinese defeated their opponents in a match of five games scoring 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11and 9-11.
Shuai Hao and Mu Zi won over the Japanese pair of Seiya Kishikawa and Ai Fukuhara in the semi-finals. It was a straight victory for the Chinese with a match score of 11-4, 11-9, 11-4, and 11-5. Ai Fukuhara was very disappointed with her performance as her
progress at the early rounds of the Women's singles was ended by Chinese Fen Ying.
Cao Zhen is also the winner of the Women’s Singles event at the 2003 Malaysian Open. She made history in the debut match of her career. She is the first player in the history of International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tours to win a title on her
debut appearance.
Earlier in 2009 Cao won the H.I.S. World Championships held in Japan. She played along Li Ping to win the title. This time around, she was on the medal podium once again.
Cao Zhen was happy and she commented on both her performances and said, “I’m just as pleased today as when I won last time, Both wins are fantastic, I think we complement each other well and that was the situation in Yokohama; Zhang Chao has a reserved character
just like Li Ping, I’m more outgoing.”
This was the second runners-up for Mu Zi, earlier she reached the Mixed Doubles finals along with Zhang Jike in 2009. This was the first final of the World Championship and the Chinese players have proved that they have the ability to make a clean sweep
on the medal tables in the upcoming tournaments.
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