My synthesis

China rallied from two sets down to beat Cuba 3-2 here on Friday to claim the title of the 2009 International Women’s Volleyball Tournament with three straight wins.

    With the hard fought 21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21 and 15-13 victory, the Chinese, who had been crowned in Luohe on Sunday, collected its second trophy in one week.

    Coming off two consecutive full set losses against Dominican Republic and Turkey on Wednesday and Thursday, Cuba got off to a flying start in the opening set, jumping to a 6-1 lead and held it to 19-13.

    The Chinese women managed to pull within 19-18, but Cuba answered with a 4-1 run and held on to make it one set to nil.

    China went back with improved reception in the second set for an early 7-5 lead on back of a kill and two kills of Xue Ming. Nancy Carrillo had two smashes and Yusidey Silie added another as Cuba went into the first technical time-out ahead at 8-7.

    Then the two teams exchanged leads until Cuba pulled away from 19-18 with a 4-1 burst and Carrillo teamed up with Ana Cleger to stuff Wang Yimei for the set winner.

    Chinese head coach Cai Bin replaced Wang Yimei and other regular starters including Li Juan and Chu Jinling with young spikers Yin Na, Hui Ruoqi and Zhao Yanni who gave the host the energy to clinch the next three sets.

    ”The regular starters are pretty tired after 50 days of training and five games in Luohe and Kunshan, while the young players are more energetic,” said Cai Bin at the press conference. “I am very happy with the bench players’ performance in the last three sets.”

    Xue Ming led China with 20 points and side hitter Hui Ruoqi came from the bench to make 12 kills in 20 tries and two blocks for 14 points.

    ”When the coach gives you a chance, you should take it. I am happy I took my chance today,” said the 18-year-old Hui.

Top-seeded Japanese Seiya Kishikawa and Jun Mizutani lived to their names here Sunday, beating Chinese newly partnered Xu Xin and Zhang Jike for the men’s doubles title at the 330,000 U.S. dollars China Open.

    The leading duo to Japanese men’s table tennis came back from 1-2 down to win over Xu and Zhang 12-10, 4-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9.

    ”It’s a welcome victory though not an easy one for us,” said Kishikawa after winning his first men’s doubles title with Mizutani in an ITTF Pro Tour ITTF Pro Tour tournament. “I could feel my nerve from the very beginning of the final, since it’s a pair from China at the other end of the table. But I managed to tune myself up and played an in-style game.”

    The Japanese duo, who shocked in Friday’s first round the hosts’ golden pairing of Olympic title holder Ma Lin and three-time world champion Wang Liqin in straight sets, won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles for host Japan at the world championships in Yokohama a month ago, losing only to China’s Xu Xin and Ma Long in the semifinals.

Mizutani reckoned the shift of partner for Xu Xin having made the difference.

    ”We’ve played a much tougher match in Yokohama against Xu Xin and Ma Long,” he said. “For today’s game against Xu Xin and Zhang Jike, we found it easy to tell how the duo would react as Zhang seemed to have little special in techniques.”

    Xu himself, however, could not agree with his Japanese rivals. The teenage sensation of China said: “The only problem with the pairing of Zhang Jike and me is that we are just coming to play the men’s doubles together, and have not yet fully adapted it.”

    ”Zhang and Ma play different styles of table tennis. Zhang’s more aggressive and Ma’s stable. Both of them are very good players,” he added.