Table Tennis: Chen’s tremendous comeback, Chinese paddler reaches Durban World quarterfinals

Chen Jingtong held off Chinese Taipei’s Cheng I-Ching in full game after saving three match points to seal a thrilling victory. Meanwhile, five other Chinese players advanced to the men’s and women’s singles quarterfinals of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) on Thursday.

Chen was trailing 1-3 after four games and was on the verge of being eliminated 9-10 and 8-10 in the fifth and sixth games. Nevertheless, she overcame the odds to win 11-7 in the decider on Thursday evening.

Chen’s next match is against teammate and defending champion Wang Manu, who came from a game down to oust Germany’s Nina Mittelheim 4–1.

Olympic champion Chen Meng won the fifth game 11-7 after a 2-2 tie with Japan’s Miyu Kihara in the opening four games. He then stopped Kihara’s rally in the sixth game to win 11–7 and advance to the next round.

Chen will face another Japanese paddler Mima Ito in the quarterfinals. The world number seven had earlier ousted Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz in straight games.

Top seeds Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi defeated South Korea’s Shin Yu-bin and Japan’s Miu Hirano in straight games to enter the women’s last eight.

Sun will now face German veteran Han Ying, while Wang’s next opponent is Japan’s Hina Hayata.

Defending champion Fan Zhendong beat German Qiu Dang 4-0 to set up a quarter-final match with Egypt’s Omar Assar, becoming only the second African player to reach the World Championship quarter-finals. Nigerian Kadri Aruna was the first to do so two years ago in Houston.

Asar told Xinhua news agency, “I am excited to reach the quarter-finals as an African player.” I am looking forward to the next round and look forward to a strong performance.

Olympic gold medalist Ma Long showed his prowess with a 4-0 win over South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon. His partner Lin Gaoyuan won 4-1 over Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-tzu. Ma and Lin will compete for a semi-final spot.

World number-4 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan ended the dream campaign of Italy’s Mihai Bobocica with a scoreline of 4-0 in Durban. In the quarterfinals, he will face Liang Jingkun of China, who defeated Darko Djorjic of Slovenia 4-2.