(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-29 21:07

GUANGZHOU - Singaporean women on Friday continued their powerful ascent with a 3-0 win over Japan to set up a final date against defending champions China at the world team table tennis championships.

Japan's Sayaka Hirano (top) fails to return a shot to Singapore's Li Jia-wei during the women's semi-finals of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Guangzhou February 29, 2008. [Agencies]

Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa, 143rd in the world rankings, hardly posed a threat to sixth-ranked Wang Yue Gu, trailing all the way to lose the first match 12-10, 11-9, 11-4.

Singapore's Li Jiawei, singles semifinalist at Athens, frequently forced 19th-ranked Sayaka Hirano to use her footwork to stay in control. Li rallied from one set down to win 6-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-8.

Ninth-ranked Ai Fukuhara failed to make life easier for Japan, losing to much lower ranked Feng Tianwei 11-8, 11-5, 11-8.

"Wang and Li were not at their best, while Feng's 3-0 victory was beyond my expectation," Singapore's head coach Liu Guodong said. "It was Feng's first win over Fukuhara."

Fukuhara said that she had spent a long time preparing for the Guangzhou championships and that she felt regret for having not met China.

Japanese women had displayed a stunning performance from the start of the championships with a series of dominant victories over European opponents and a hard-earned 3-2 win over a dogged South Korea.

Singapore will play China in the final on Saturday. But Liu said the match was likely to be a lopsided affair because "there is still a large gap between Singapore and the world's top players."

Earlier in the afternoon, China stormed into the final with a 3-0 defeat of Hong Kong.

The defeat shattered Hong Kong women's dream of snatching their third consecutive silver in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Hong Kong was the team runner-up at the last two worlds in Doha and Bremen.

Guo Yue had little difficulty in beating the 2007 Asian Cup singles champion Jiang Huajun 3-1, followed by veteran Wang Nan with a 3-0 defeat of Tie Ya Na, the 2006 Doha Asian Games singles runner-up.

Fast-attacking Zhang Yining sealed China's success by brushing aside Lin Ling 3-1.