JOHOR BHARU, Malaysia, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese team suffered a blow at the T2 Diamond 2019 Malaysia in Malaysia's state of Johor, with all four players being knocked out on Friday.
Jun Mizutani lost to Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei in 4 straight games while his compatriot Miu Hirano fared somewhat better against Feng Tianwei of Singapore by winning the first two sets but ultimately her futile effort saw her beaten 4-2.
In the evening session, Japanese men's singles player Koki Niwa put up a good fight against Sweden's Mattias Falck but was ultimately defeated 4-2, before the final blow came when Kazumi Ishikawa lost to China's Zhu Yuling 4-1.
Chinese players continue their dominant performance as Fan Zhendong, Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling advanced to the next round, leaving behind Liang Jingkun who was defeated by Patrick Franziska of Germany by 4-2.
The tournament will continue on Saturday with remaining 16 players set to face off during Saturday's quarterfinals.
The tournament imposes unique rules: each match is limited to 24 minutes and sets are played to 11 points with no tie-breaks or two-point differential in a best-of-seven format.
If no winner is determined at the 24th minute, any remaining games that commence after the 24th minute will be played as FAST5, with the first player to five points winning the game.
