MACAO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Fan Zhendong completed a marvelous comeback win by beating teammate Lin Shidong 4-3 at the ITTF World Cup knockout stage here on Thursday, as seven out of 11 Team China players moved into the top eight.
The tournament resumed the best-of-seven format with Lin Gaoyuan opening the matchday for Team China with a 4-2 triumph over Darko Jorgic of Slovenia, followed by Ma Long's win over French talent Felix Lebrun with the same scoreline.
"Felix has quick transitions and pace, which sometimes puts pressure on opponents. So today, I tried to keep pace with him. And the game was not as easy as it seems; we drew a lot during the play, but I did a good job on the key points," Ma noted.
An eye-catching derby was staged between Fan and birthday boy Lin Shidong. The 19-year-old latter had surged into a 3-1 lead, but the three-time World Cup champion, Fan, fought back to drag the game into the seventh set.
Fan opened the decider with a 6-1 advantage and held two match points when it came to 10-8. Despite Lin's resilience, Fan still held his nerve to seal the win with a hard-fought 15-13.
"The format leaves me more space to reset. I have conceded consecutive defeats against Lin, so I don't think I have an advantage over him. But I am ready for his swoop, no matter technically and mentally."
In a late men's fixture, world No. 1 Wang Chuqin fought back twice to overturn Brazilian Hugo Calderano 4-2, while Liang Jingkun was eliminated by Anton Kallberg 4-3.
On the women's side, there was another Chinese derby between Sun Yingsha and Chen Xingtong. Having lost to Chen in the WTT Singapore Smash back in March, this time Sun left Chen no chance, wrapping up a 4-1 victory.
"We are very familiar with each other and on the same level. I lost to her in Singapore, but I adjusted well today and had gotten ready for a seven-set fixture."
Another two Chinese players, Chen Meng and Wang Manyu, also joined Sun to move into the last eight with relatively comfortable wins, but Wang Yidi was stunned by 15-year-old Miwa Harimoto.
