The final four came out Saturday evening after German table tennis star Timo Boll defeated Chuang Chih-Yuan from Chinese Taipei 4-3 in the last quarterfinals of the 2010 Liebherr men's World Cup.
Boll suffered the opening set defeat 15-13, then nailed Chuang in the second by 11-7 for a 1-1 tie. In the third and fourth sets, Chuang became victorious again by 11-6 and 11-9 for a comfortable 3-1 advantage.
However, the moments came for Boll who kept leading throughout the remaining sets, winning three in a row 11-8, 11-8 and 11-6 to seal the full-set match amid applause and cheers from the audience.
"Chuang was very quick, too quick for me," Boll told Xinhua after the victory, "He is also fresh for me, so I made many wrong decisions during the match, but I keep fighting and my coach gave me a lot of good suggestions like strengthen my forehand."
Boll also thanked audience who have given him great support all through the match, saying "audience's cheers can help me correct mistakes and I will try my best for them tomorrow."
"I am really happy Boll won this match, but he didn't play so well as I thought. I will keep supporting him tomorrow, but I think he may lose the match against Wang Hao," Martin Froehner, table tennis fan, said.
On Sunday's semifinal against Chinese Wang Hao, Boll said that "it will not be an easy game. I must play on my top level."
Boll remains the only player outside Asia in the final four, which also features Wang Hao, Zhang jike from China and Jun Mizutani from Japan.