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Chinese stars cruise on at table tennis worlds

Xinhua, April 30, 2015

• Ai Fukuhara competes against Ukrainian veteran and world No. 63 Tetyana Bilenko during the Women's Singles match at the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships in Suzhou, city of east China's Jiangsu Province, on April 29, 2015. Ai Fukuhara lost the match 2-4. [Xinhua]

  Japanese Ai Fukuhara made a shock second round exit from the women's singles.

  Hugely popular in China, the world No. 8 ranked Japanese had been cheered on by Chinese spectators throughout her 4-2 loss to Ukraine's Tetyana Bilenko.

  Japan's woes were compounded by the loss of world No. 13 Sayaka Hirano to unseeded Hana Matelova from the Czech Republic in seven games.

  There were victories for Chinese players Liu Shiwen, Mu Zi, Li Xiaoxia and Zhu Yuling, Japan's fifth seed Kasumi Ishikawa and Singapore's world No. 4 Feng Tianwei.

  In women's doubles round of 16, fifth seeds Polish duo Katarzyna Grzybowska/Natalia Partyka and sixth seeds Doo Hoi Kem and Lee Ho Ching of Chinese Hongkong both crashed out.

  Top seeds Fukuhara and Misako Wakamiya were too good for Kristin Silbereisen/Sabine Winter of Germany. The Japanese pair's victory means they have scheduled a great match with Chinese pair Ding/Li in the next round.

  In men's doubles round of 16, Fan and his partner Zhou Yu had the biggest win of their young partnership, beating the world No. 3 team Tang Peng and Wong Chun Ting from Hongkong, China.

  Heavy favorites Xu and Zhang also reached the quarterfinals.

  In mixed doubles, Xu partnered South Korean Yang Haeun to beat Steffen Mengel/Petrissa Solja of Germany 4-0 for a last four berth.

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