Chinese men and women both reach quarters at Olympic table tennis

Top ranked China made easy through into both men's and women's team quarterfinals of the Olympic table tennis competitions here on Friday, with most of the leading seeds advancing from the completed first round face-offs.

Newly crowned singles champion Ma Long came out the sole Chinese surrendering a game during the opening round.

Coming on court as the second Chinese, the 27-year-old Grand Slam winner led 2-0 against Nigerian Quadric Aruna, Ma's quarterfinal opponent in the men's singles three days ago.

The Africa's history maker, however, forced a few errors from Ma and opened the third game with a 6-1 run before winning it 11-5 to pull one game back.

Ma then held his nerve and took back control of the match, only letting go two points in the fourth game.

Ahead of Ma's stumble, Xu Xin made his debut to an Olympic Games, beating Segun Toriola in straight sets. The Shanghai native then teamed up with the men's singles runner-up Zhang Jike in the third set to win the third score of team China with a 3-0 win over Toriola and Bode Abiodun.

The Chinese men's team will next play Britain in Sunday's quarterfinal encounter after the latter coming back from two sets down to upset the Chinese coach Han Hua-headed French team.

Sweden and South Korea were the other two sides advancing and will play against each others in the quarters after the two teams respectively ousted the United States and the hosts Brazil in Friday evening's first round.

For the women's side, world No. 1 female paddler Liu Shiwen, participating only in the team event just like Xu, ended a two-week wait to debut on the Rio Olympic court of table tennis.

The 25-year-old, three-time world cup winner and runner-up in both 2013 and 2015 world championships, opened the first round women's team rivalry for China, beating Brazilian Chinese Lin Gui 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 to give the defending champions a 1-0 lead.

Following twice Olympic finalist Li Xiaoxia's straight-set triumph over Bruna Takahashi, She was later back to the court again, pairing up with newly crowned singles gold medalist Ding Ning and easing past Lin Gui and Caroline Kumahara 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 to wrap up it 3-0.

Winning two points in style for the Chinese team, Liu, however, was said too nervous and under her normal level.

"Her first game went quite intense," commented Kong Linghui, head coach of the Chinese women's national team and a Grand Slam winner himself in his athlete career. "She failed to carry out the tactics smoothly at the very beginning against a player ranked just at the 139th."

"It's normal for an Olympic debutant since it's so different with much extra pressure," added Kong.

Liu echoed that she's still looking for the right rhythm of herself. "I made a few mistakes before adapting to the atmosphere," she said.

The Chinese women will next face eighth seed DPR Korea in the women's team quarterfinals after the latter ousted Australia with a 3-0 win, and Liu, a specialist of playing against defensive players, has set to play two sets again as she did on Friday.

Other women's team quarterfinal encounters on Saturday will be South Korea vs Singapore, Germany vs Hong Kong, China, and the second-seeded Japan vs Austria, a 3-1 winner over the Netherlands.

Source : XINHUA