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YOKOHAMA, Japan - China's world number one and hot-favourite Zhang Yining became the first player to reach the women's singles fourth round at the world table tennis championships on Friday.
The Beijing Olympic gold medallist and top seed here was in top form as she demolished Daniela Dodean of Romania 11-4, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9 to move a step closer towards regaining the title she won in 2005.
She led a Chinese onslaught as Guo Yan, Li Xiaoxia, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen all advanced.
Guo lost a game for the first time this week but still easily beat Park Young-Sook of South Korea, while Li also outclassed Elke Schall of Germany, again in five games.
"I played her (Schall) for the first time, so I experienced a lot from this match. It was a good experience," Li said.
Ding defeated Wu Jiaduo of Germany and Liu saw off Japan's Mikie Tasei.
"I was under pressure in the beginning," said Ding. "But I did my best and I think I played better in the latter half."
Also joining the Chinese contingent in the fourth round was Krisztina Toth of Hungary, Yu Meng Yu of Singapore, Japanese teenager Kasumi Ishikawa and Renata Strbikova and Iveta Vacenovska, both of the Czech Republic.
Li Jiao of the Netherlands also made it through after a tough time against Sun Bei Bei of Singapore.
In the men's, China's world number one Wang Hao lost a game for the first time before beating Thomas Keinath of Slovakia in the third round.
Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong, Japan's Kaii Yoshida and Kim Jung-Hoon of South Korea join Wang in the fourth round.
Other third-round winners were Japan's Jun Mizutani and Kenta Matsudaira, Cheung Yuk of Hong Kong and Joo Se-Hyuk of South Korea.
- AFP/ir
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