Men's:
Heilongjiang recovered to win a 3-2 tie over the strong Zhejiang club. Kong won his singles, as well as the Golden Ball match in this tie. Xu Hui supplied the other win for the home-team.
Bejing beat Shaanxi 3-1. Liu Guoliang won the first singles, but Leung Chu-Yan and Yan Sen both fell in the next 2 matches. In the doubles, the experineced team of Gao Wei and Liu Heng proved too much for Liu/Yan who lost 2-3.
Nanjing also scored a 3-1 win over Hebei. Guangdong ended its losing streak by beating Sichuan 4-0. Chiang Peng Lung stayed undefeated, beating Chen Junji 3-0 in this tie. The unusual Chiang/Qin pair took the 4th doubles match, overcoming Chen Junji/Ye Roting 3-1.
Shanghai won another tie, this time 3-2 over PLA. Guo Jinhao supplied the second singles win, beating Zhan Jian 3-2. Wang Liqin faced Wang Hao in the Golden Ball match, and Wang Liqin prevailed with a 5-4 win to snatch a tough victory for the Shanghai club.
Luneng continued to steam-roll its opponents, this time administering a 4-0 beating to Tianjin. Ma Lin ended Phase 1 with a 3-0 singles win over Hao Shuai and a doubles win. Luneng has a 9 game winning streak now.
Women's:
In a match of 2 top teams, Hebei beat Liaoning 3-1. In a rare number-1 vs number-1 matchup, Niu Jianfeng faced Wang Nan, and lost 2-3. That was Niu's second loss in the season thus far. Hebei then took the next 3 matches to pick up the win.
Tianjin used a Li Nan 5-2 Golden Ball match win to defeat the young Sichuan club. Beijing had a fairly easy time beating Shanxi 4-0. In a match between 2 teams with similar records, Shandong Luneng defeated Shanghai Telecom 3-1. Shanghai played Konishi instead of Gao Jun in this tie, and Konishi lost her singles against Jiang Huajun 2-3. Henan beat JIangsu 3-1, and Guangdong overcame PLA with the same score.
Finally Phase 1 is over, and Hebei is happily atop of the standings with
an amazing 11-0 record. The other end is occupied by Shanxi, which has no
national team members, at 0-11.