Taiwanese Olympic medalist Cheng I-ching on Thursday beat Amy Wang of the US 4-0 to advance to the round of 16 at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston, Texas.
World No. 8 Cheng defeated 18-year-old Wang 11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4 at the George R. Brown Convention Center to set up her next match against China’s Chen Xingtong yesterday.
Cheng, 29, and compatriot Lin Yun-ju, with whom she won bronze at the Tokyo Games, also advanced to the next round of the mixed doubles after beating the Swedish pairing of Truls Moregard and Christina Kallberg 3-0.
Photo: Erik Williams-USA TODAY
The world No. 2 duo downed the Swedes 11-6, 11-8, 12-10, and were yesterday to play Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen and Lin Ye, ranked world No. 68.
Taiwan’s other mixed doubles pairing, world No. 58 Chen Szu-yu and Chen Chien-an, also advanced after beating South Korea’s world No. 14 Jang Woo-jin and Jeon Ji-hee 3-1. Chen Szu-yu and Chen Chien-an were today to play China’s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.
In men’s doubles, Chen Chien-an and Chuang Chih-yuan downed fellow Taiwanese Feng Yi-hsin and Huang Yan-cheng 3-0. World No. 8 Chen Chien-an and Chuang and were next to play the world No. 14 duo of South Korea’s Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon.
Lin lost his men’s singles match to Lim, who won 4-3. Lim, 24, overcame the 20-year-old world No. 6 Lin 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 13-11.
Taiwan’s Liu Hsing-yin and Chen Szu-yu were knocked out of the women’s singles after losing to France’s Jia Nan Yuan and Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz respectively.
Both of Taiwan’s women’s doubles pairings crashed out of the tournament, with Cheng Hsien-tzu and Liu falling to Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte and Xia Lian Ni, while Chen Szu-yu and Li Yu-jhun lost to Japan’s Mima Ito and Hina Hayata.
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