SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE IN TABLE TENNIS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30733, 24 April 1965, Page 13

SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE IN TABLE TENNIS

(N.Z.P.A.- Reuter —Copyright)

LJUBLJANA (Jugoslavia), April 23.

China and Japan, as expected, dominated the first day of competition proper when the individual events at the world table tennis championships began yesterday.

When the fourth round was completed, China (nine) and Japan (five) had 14 representatives in the last 32.

Yesterday also brought the first big incident of the championships, Russia and China clashing over a disputed service.

This came in the match in which Anatoli Amelin (Soviet Union) defeated Chen ShengHing (China), 16-21, 21-17, 22-20, 19-21, 21-19. The Chinese player had been warned several times about faulty serving, and eventually, with the score at 14-11 in his favour, his service was ruled out. The point was awarded to the Russian.

The Chinese coach protested, and play was held up for 45 minutes while heated arguments went on beside the table.

The president of the International Table Tennis Feder-

ation, Mr Ivor Montagu, was called in, and he finally got the teams playing again.

With the crowd behind him, Amelin levelled, and went on to win. Ip the next round Amelin meets another Chinese, Hsu Yin-Sheng. Chuang-Tse-Tung, of China, the defending champion, made an impressive start to his defence of the men’s singles title. He easily beat the 15-year-old Jugoslav schoolboy, Anton Stipancic, 21-8, 21-11, 2114. The left-handed Stipancic has been playing international table tennis since he was 13. He did well to reach double figures, and the champion treated him with respect, although he never had to raise his game.