OLYMPICS/Taiwan reaches Olympic men's team table tennis quarterfinals

Paris, Aug. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's men's table tennis team triumphed over Egypt on Monday to secure a place in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics.

For the men's team event, three-player teams face off in a doubles match followed by two singles matches. If neither side sweeps the initial three-match series, teams play a maximum of two singles matches as a tiebreaker.

Led by table tennis veteran Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵), the Taiwanese team also includes Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿).

Chuang and Kao began the doubles match with a win, beating the Egyptian pair Khalid Assar and Youssef Abdel-Aziz 3-2 in five games (10-12, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8).

Lin then defeated Mohamed El-Beiali in straight games 11-7, 12-10, 11-7 to give Taiwan's team a two-match lead.

Kao later sealed the victory for Taiwan after beating Youssef Abdel-Aziz 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9.

The Taiwanese paddlers will face either Japan or Australia in the quarterfinals, as the latter two teams are scheduled to go against each other in the round of 16 later Monday.