Men's:
Luneng scored another victory to keep its winning streak alive, this time 3-1 over PLA. Wang Hao won his singles over Liu Guozheng, 3-2, for the only PLA point in this tie.
Zhejiang continued its winning ways, beating Nanjing 3-1. Tianjin fell to Beijing in a close 5 match affair. Hou Yingchao beat Hao Shuai in the Golden Ball match 5-4 to give the visiting team the victory.
In a major upset, Hebei defeated Guangdong 3-2. Li Jing won the first singles match over Zhang Chao, and then Qin and Chiang won their respective singles to go up 2-1 in match score. Qin/Zhang lost the key doubles to Li Jing/Jiang Jianan 1-3, extending the tie to a 5th match. Surprisingly, Jiang Jianan beat Qin, who was usually very dependable, 5-3, for the tie victory.
Shaanxi beat Sichuan 3-1, with Liu Guoliang winning his singles and doubles matches. In his singles match against Chen Junji, Liu had to come back from 0-2 to win. Wang Jianjun scored the only point for Sichuan by beating veteran Yan Sen.
Shanghai beat Heilongjiang 3-1 in a surprising match. Wang won his usual singles, and Xi Minjie supplied the other singles win over Xu Hui. The Wang/Guo Jinhao pair then beat Kong/Xu 3-0 in doubles to clinch a much needed victory.
Women's:
Hebei beat Tianjin 3-1, and Li Nan scored the only point for Tianjin by beating Bai Yang 3-1. Since Bai changed to pips-out, her results have been very erratic. The good news for her is that she and Niu are almost unbeatable in doubles. Shanghai, without Gao Jun, beat PLA 3-1. It appears that the Shanghai team is alternating between Gao and Konishi in its line-up. Luneng beat up on the weaker Shanxi 4-0, and Sichuan also took advantage of the weaker Jiangsu club to notch a 3-1 win. Yang Ying won her singles in this tie, but she also has been playing not at her best this season. The Beijing club, with Zhang Yining and Guo Yan scoring singles wins while avoiding Wang Nan, took a 3-1 win over Liaoning. It seems like most clubs have been able to manipulate their line-ups so that their number-one players avoid playing the opposing club's number-one player, at least until the Golden Ball match.
Henan, led by 13-year-old Guo Yue, beat Guangdong 3-1, thanks largely
to Guo's two wins in this tie. Penholder Cao Xingni lost the pivotal singles
match 2-3, 13-15 in the fifth to Shan Xiaona of Henan to miss out on forcing
a Golden Ball match. Cao and Li Nan are the two best penholders on the national
team now.