Dominant from start to finish, the Chinese women's team punched their tickets to Tokyo in emphatic fashion. The latest setting for this familiar tale was Yogyakarta, Indonesia, host of the 2019 ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships. Chinese women's team coach Li Sun had the luxury of choosing between the six highest-ranked women in the world. Thus, it goes without saying they were the top-seeded team. In their first matchup, China faced DPR Korea (a.k.a. North Korea) in the quarterfinals, dropping only one game en route to a three-nil victory. In the semis against Singapore, again only one game was surrendered, a victory hastened by Singaporean Feng Tianwei's mid-match retirement against China's Ding Ning. In the finals against Japan, China fielded Sun Yingsha, Liu Shiwen and world #1 Chen Meng. In the first match, Liu Shiwen drew Miu Hirano, an opponent against whom she enjoyed an undefeated record, winning all seven previous encounters. At the end, Liu extended her head-to-head record to 8-0 with a 3-0 sweep. Japan would then attempt to level the score, sending Kasumi Ishikawa to take on reigning Olympic champion Ding Ning. Despite a competitive first two games, Ishikawa could not crack the code as Ding slammed the door shut, (11-9, 12-10, 11-1). This left Hitomi Sato as Japan's last hope. Against Sun Yingsha, she put up a spirited fight, rallying to win the third game after surrendering the first two. In the end, however, China persisted in its habit of dropping exactly one game per round. Sun Yingsha won the fourth game, and with it, the match, the championship and her team's automatic qualification for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The Chinese men will do their best to follow suit tomorrow, when they will play Japan in the semifinals. The winner will face whomever emerges from the tilt between Chinese Taipei (a.k.a. Taiwan) and Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea). In the quarterfinals, the Chinese men breezed past Singapore without dropping a game. Perhaps, like their countrywomen, they will succeed in replicating the game count in each successive round?

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