不过很多人认为, the 2nd and 3rd champions, 李富荣 was better than 老庄. China asked 李富荣 to let 老庄 to win.
I kindly agreed with this since I used to read a book about this. I remember the final score in the 3rd champion. 老庄 won 3:2. But, the score was very close when 老庄 won a set and the score was not close when 老庄 lost.
Xiong