The Singapore Smash table tennis tournament witnessed outstanding performances from top-seeded Chinese players, reinforcing their dominance in the sport.
In the men's singles second round, No. 1 seed Wang Chuqin secured a victory against local paddler Koen Pang with scores of 11-7, 11-7, 11-8. Despite Koen Pang's global ranking of 142nd, he posed significant challenges in the second and third games, leading Wang to acknowledge him as a tough opponent in a best-of-five match.
Wang Chuqin is set to face 15th-seeded Anton Kallberg of Sweden in the next round. Kallberg previously defeated Wang at the World Table Tennis Champions Frankfurt in Germany last year during the round of 16. Wang anticipates a competitive clash against Kallberg.
In another men's singles match, No. 4 seed Liang Jingkun made a remarkable comeback to defeat German veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov with scores of 6-11, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9, 15-13. Liang will now compete against Ricardo Walther, another German player, in the subsequent round.
On the women's side, fourth-seeded Chen Xingtong of China dominated Portuguese player Shao Jieni with scores of 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 in the second round. Chen's next opponent will be Romanian 13th seed Bernadette Szocs.
Second-seeded Wang Manyu advanced after defeating Chien Tung-Chuan of Chinese Taipei with scores of 14-12, 8-11, 11-6, 11-3. She will move on to the last 16, where she awaits her women's doubles partner Kuai Man.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
