Ma Long of China competes during the men's singles match against Anton Kallberg of Sweden at the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany, June 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Tao Xiyi)
Defending champion and world No. 1 Ding Ning led five Chinese players into the last 16 of the women's singles at the World Table Tennis Championships as Ma Long and Zhang Jike had to fight off tenacious challenges to win their men's singles second round matches on Thursday.
Ding, also an Olympic champion, wasted little time in scoring an easy 4-0 victory over former Chinese player Ni Xialian, now representing Luxembourg. Next, she will take on another former Chinese player, Li Jie, for a place in the quarterfinals.
Li, now playing for the Netherlands, eliminated Chinese-American Lily Zhang 4-1.
Ding's four teammates also won their women's singles matches without dropping a single game.
World No. 2 Liu beat Suh Hyowon of South Korea, third-ranked Zhu Yulong defeated Kim Kyungah, also of South Korea, Mu Zi routed another former Chinese player Li Qian, now representing Poland and world No. 5 Chen Meng outplayed Dana Cechova of the Czech Republic. Ding had earlier secured a berth in the women's doubles quarterfinals after she paired with Liu Shiwen to defeat Japan's Miu Hirano, the newly crowned Asian champion, and Ishikawa Kasumi.
Men's world No. 1 and defending champion Ma went down to Anton Kallbergin of Sweden in the first game 4-11 before taking the next three to pull ahead 3-1.
The 20-year-old Kallberg, ranked 97th in the world, won the fifth 11-8 before trailing Ma 6-10. He took three points in a row to make it 9-10 before Ma finished off the match 11-9.
The match was held just two hours after Ma and German star Timo Boll lost to Chinese pair Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong 4-1 in the second round of the men's doubles.
"It is very tough to play two matches during such a short period of time," Ma said. "And since the ball is larger, the game becomes more energy-consuming. It is really a difficult match and fortunately I made the right adjustment at the right time," Ma added.
Zhang Jike, the former world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist, also labored to beat Austria's Robert Gardos 4-2.
The other three Chinese advanced easily, with world No. 2 Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin both winning 4-0 and Lin Zhiyuan dropping one game to beat Austria's Daniel Habesohn 4-1.
The day's biggest surprise came from an all-Japanese affair as 13-year-old Tomokazu Harimoto created the biggest upset by knocking out teammate and 6th seed Jun Mizutani in the men's singles.
In his world championship debut, Harimoto, ranked 69th in the world, broke the usually impenetrable defenses of Rio bronze medalist Mizutani, winning 4-1.
"Age has nothing to do with table tennis," said Harimoto, who shocked the world by reaching the final of the Indian Open early this year.
Earlier, Romania's Elizabeta Samara, ranked 31st in the world, also scored a surprise victory, overcoming Japan's world No. 10 Hitomi Sato 4-3.
Local favorites Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Germany's No. 1, and 13-time German champion Timo Boll both reached the men's singles third round.
German women's No. 1 Petrissa Soja was eliminated in the singles but had her defeat was consoled after she was guaranteed a medal in the mixed doubles with China's Fang Bo. The mixed-nationality duo first defeated Chuang Chi-Yuan and Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei and then beat Swedish pair Mattias Karlsson and Matilda Ekholm to enter the last four.
