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National Games: table tennis titans Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng march on towards singles gold
- Men’s world number one Fan closely followed by number three Xu as number two Ma searches for doubles redemption
- Women’s star Chen must fend off the in-form Sun and Wang as singles, doubles and mixed teams glory awaits
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China’s marquee table tennis players continued to shine at the National Games on Thursday as the men’s, women’s and team tournaments heat up at the Yan’an University Gymnasium.
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World number one Fan Zhendong continued his form in the men’s singles, after a revenge-fuelled win over Ma Long on Wednesday, to beat Yan An of Beijing 4-1 in the quarter-final.
The 24-year-old Guangdong native is a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games team gold medallist and four-time world champion and is clear favourite for the remaining rounds.
Three-time Olympic gold medallist Ma, who sits at world number two and holds the record for longest reign at number one, returned to action alongside fellow Beijing representative Wang Chiqin to beat Shanghai’s Zhao Zhaoyan and Sun Zheng 3-0 in the men’s doubles quarter-final.
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Men’s world number three Xu Xin of Shanghai beat Zhou Yu of Henan 4-1 in the singles quarter-final. The 31-year-old former world number one competes alongside women’s speedster Liu Shiwen in a “joint team” against Lin Gaoyuan and Huang Weiqi of Guangdong in the mixed doubles semi-final this evening.
Meanwhile, women’s world number one Chen Meng of Shandong overcame a first-game loss to beat Sun Yizhen of Hubei 4-1 in the singles quarter-final. The Tokyo 2020 champion will now play for a medal having lost in the women’s team against Liaoning the day before.
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