NANYANG, China, May 26 (Xinhua) -- World's top-ranked Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng met little resistance en route to the quarterfinals of the Chinese table tennis Olympic simulation here on Wednesday.
After concluding the first-stop simulation event in Xinxiang earlier in May, the Chinese table tennis team moved to Nanyang, another city in central China's Henan Province, for the five-day competition amid Tokyo Olympic preparation.
Fan overcame Zhang Yudong 11-9, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 in the men's singles first round.
"The first two sets were intense. The opponent showed his toughness. After I won these two sets, his confidence went down a bit," commented Fan.
Chen, Fan's counterpart in the women's singles, swept her first round opponent Sun Mingyang 12-10, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6.
"I was not motivated enough at the start. Then I made adjustments on the floor, and in the first match here, I improved my level set after set," said Chen.
This glittering performance in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic raged the world shows that Fan and Chen are ready for their Olympic debut in Tokyo with less than two months to go.
"I can now focus on preparations for my first Olympic Games and make some specific plans after knowing that I will go play in Tokyo 2020."
Grand Slam winner Ma Long, who will compete in the Olympic singles event along with Fan, booked a quarterfinal berth with an 11-7, 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 victory over 20-year-old Liang Yanning.
"It's the first time that we have played each other. Today I executed what I had planned before the match, and had good control of it," Ma said.
Prominent men's names such as Wang Chuqin, Lin Gaoyuan and Zhou Qihao, winner of the previous Olympic simulation in Xinxiang, also made their way into the last eight.
The women's singles witnessed no surprises as well, as Liu Shiwen, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu all advanced to the quarterfinals.
Liu harvested a straight-sets win against chopper Liu Fei, and was later joined by world No. 3 Sun, who needed full sets to eliminate Zhang Rui.
Instead of a normal best-of-seven format, the mixed doubles group matches are played in a best-of-three format this time.
Olympic bound pair Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen won the first set 11-9 and possessed one match point at 10-9, but Zhou Kai and He Zhuojia bounced back to snatch three points in a row to force a third set 12-10. Xu and Liu gave opponents little hope from there and secured an 11-1 win.
Liu Guoliang, the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) president, had a post-match talk with the duo.
"We were a bit nervous in the first match here," admitted Xu. "Liu (CTTA president) thought it helped us in adjusting our mentality as the atmosphere was closer to that during the Olympic Games."
"We need to maintain our mentality and become more focused in the future," his partner Liu echoed.
Xu and Liu continued their fine form afterwards and won their third straight in as many matches.
The other pair with a perfect record so far is Zhou Yu and Chen Xingtong.
Ma Te and Liu Fei, the winning pair in Xinxiang, lost to Xu Chenhao and Wang Yidi in straight sets, finishing their Wednesday's campaign with a 2-1 record.
The mixed doubles group matches continue on Thursday, with the top four from each group advancing to the quarterfinals. Enditem
