Chinese paddlers take up five of men's singles last eight spots at Swedish Open

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-18 08:36:08|Editor: ZD
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STOCKHOLM, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese team displayed their dominance at the ITTF World Tour Swedish Open as they took up five places in the quarterfinals here on Friday. Current world champion Ding Ning has booked her place in women's singles semifinals.

Top seed Fan Zhendong came back from 11-6 down in the opening game to beat Benedikt Duda of Germany 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-3. He will meet Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, who beat Portuguese Marcos Freitas in straight games.

Qualifier Zhou Yu won 4-0 in an all-Chinese contest against Yan An. His fellow Chinese Liu Dingshuo's withdrawal in the third game earned Lin Gaoyuan a spot in last eight. Zhou and Lin have to keep their title dream alive in a head-to-head matchup.

In the bottom half, second-seeded Xu Xin met much more challenge from Japan's talent Tomokazu Harimoto than at the 2017 World Championships, as the Chinese marched on through a seven-game thriller, especially clawing back from a 1-3 deficit after four games. Next up against Xu will be the Dane Jonathan Groth.

After accounting for home favorite Kristian Karlsson 4-0, China's Fang Bo set up a quarterfinal clash with Koki Niwa of Japan.

Ding Ning was riding high in her first international tournament in almost five months, as the Grand Slam winner eliminated teammate Chen Ke 4-0, before beating another compatriot Zhang Qiang 4-2.

It was totally different scenario for Japanese top-ranked Kasumi Ishikawa, as she needed two seven-game thrillers to see off Chinese paddlers, Li Xiaodan and Gu Yuting, for the highly-anticipated semifinal against Ding.

World Cup winner Zhu Yuling eased past Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong, China in straight games, the same as her teammate Chen Meng did against local favorite Matilda Ekholm.

Chen Xingtong, the other Chinese paddler remaining in the bottom half, will meet Chen Meng on Saturday. The other semifinal berth will be decided between Zhu Yuling and Japan's Miyu Kato.

Chen Meng and Zhu Yuling combined to reach women's doubles title match following two consecutive wins on Friday. The final opponents standing in their way will be Hina Hayata and Mima Ito of Japan.

Also on Friday, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin won two matches in a row to position themselves in men's doubles final, with Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong, China ahead.

The Swedish Open, final stop of the 2017 ITTF World Tour, will see four events' winners on Sunday. 

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