IN TOTAL CONTROL: China's Ding Ning faces Park Seonghye of South Korea in their women's singles fourth round match at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Paris. (Reuters)
AFP/South Korea
Reigning champion Ding Ning of China cruised into the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships in Paris yesterday with a whitewash of South Korea’s Park Seonghye.
Park had ruthlessly dispatched Japanese 10th seed Ai Fukuhara in the opening round on Wednesday, but she was no match for fourth-round opponent and world number one Ding as she was swept aside 11-8, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7.
The top seed will meet Ri Myong Sun in the last eight on Saturday after the North Korean overpowered Liu Jia of Austria.
Second-ranked Liu Shiwen also advanced untroubled, making light work of South Korea’s Seo Hyowon as the two-time World Cup winner coasted to an 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 victory in the French capital.
Reigning Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia, a runner-up at the worlds in both 2007 and 2011, emerged triumphant in her duel with compatriot Chen Meng as she won 11-6, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9 to set up another
all-Chinese affair with Wu Yang, who defeated North Korean Kim Hye Song, in the quarters.
Olympic bronze medallist Feng Tianwei of Singapore, the highest non-Chinese entrant in the women’s draw, saw off a plucky display from world No. 89 Tetyana Bilenko of Ukraine to prevail 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9.
Zhu Yuling was locked in a titanic sixth-game battle with Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun before eventually progressing 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 21-19, but top-rated European Shen Yanfei of Spain was sent packing by Turkey’s Melek Hu.
The seventh-ranked Spaniard appeared in control after taking the opening two games but world No. 101 Melek stunned Shen by reeling off the next four games to complete a 6-11, 13-15, 11-9, 13-11, 11-5, 11-6 upset.