World No. 1 paddlers Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha of China advanced to the quarterfinals at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Macao yesterday, the fourth day of the weeklong tournament. Yet in different fashion.
In the men’s singles round of 16, Fan swept past South Korea’s Lee Sang Su in straight sets 11-7, 11-4, 11-8.
“I was quite excited during the match. We had some fierce confrontations. I was prepared for that,” Fan said.
After dropping the first set to Sweden’s Mattias Falck, defending champion Wang Chuqin of China took bolder initiatives from the second set on and won 7-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5.
Brazilian icon Hugo Calderano landed a historic win over Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov 11-5, 11-7, 14-16, 13-11, becoming the first-ever player from the Americas to reach the quarterfinals at a WTT Champions event.
Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic scored a comeback victory over World No. 5 Liang Jingkun of China 8-11, 12-14, 11-5, 13-11, 11-8 with his incredible backhand.
South Korea’s Jang Woojin upset Anton Kallberg of Sweden 12-10, 11-9, 11-6.
In the women’s singles round of 16, Sun made a comeback win over Han Ying of Germany 9-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4.
“It was a difficult match. Han’s attacks put pressure on me. I did not give up after losing the first two games and told myself to fight for each point,” Sun said.
Second seed Wang Manyu of China came up against Liu Yangzi of Australia, emerging unscathed from Liu’s powerful challenge of five game-points and moving through with 12-10, 11-6, 16-14.
Other action saw world No. 3 Wang Yidi of China defeat Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 11-13, 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8.
China’s Qian Tianyi took down South Korea’s Shin Yubin 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-4, while Romania’s Bernadette Szocs edged Yuan Jianan of France 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 4-11, 12-10.
– Xinhua
Fan Zhendong of China hits a return during the men’s singles round of 16 match against Lee Sang Su of South Korea at the WTT Champions Macao 2023 at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion yesterday. – Xinhua
