Table tennis: Games over for Jackson

Peter Jackson's third Olympic table tennis campaign ended today, when he was outclassed by Czech Petr Korbel in their final men's qualification match in Sydney today.

The New Zealander, who also competed at Seoul and Barcelona, went down fighting but he had no answer to Korbel's range of skills, losing 11-21 13-21 15-21.

Korbel, a losing semifinalist at the Atlanta Olympics, kept hitting the ball into Jackson's body - denying him width to play his shots.

When Jackson did manage to break loose, they played some thrilling rallies - the best coming with Korbel leading 8-19 in the second set.

With both players standing well back from the table, Jackson started as the aggressor and Korbel the defender. But Jackson had four chances to win the point before a stray shot put Korbel on attack and he eventually smashed Jackson's defence.

Jackson had earlier lost in straight sets to India's Chetan Baboor, whom Korbel also dispatched on his way to qualifying for the first knockout round of 16 players.

New Zealand's last chance of being represented in the second round of the table tennis competition rests with Li Chunli.

She and younger sister Karen missed out on qualifying for the doubles knockout competition when they lost to Germany's two-times European champions Nicole Struse and Elke Schall on Monday night.

Although disappointed with their doubles display, Li Chunli was looking forward to playing unheralded Chilean Berta Olate Rodriguez in her second and final pool match on Wednesday evening.

Having earlier beaten a Lithuanian opponent in a tough four-setter, Chunli is favoured to beat Rodriguez and advanced to the last 16 composed of eight qualifiers and eight seeded players.

- NZPA