Six Chinese paddlers advance at 2023 Nagoya Women's WTT Finals

Six Chinese players reached the 2023 Women's World Table Tennis (WTT) Finals singles round of 8 in Nagoya on Friday, securing a spot in the final.

Featuring the world's best 16 women's singles players and the top eight women's doubles pairs, the season-ending championship is the first WTT series event that Japan hosts.

Having won the women's singles title at WTT Champions Frankfurt last month, China's Wang Yidi rallied past Shin Yu-bin of South Korea 11-6, 11-6, 11-13, 11-5 to secure the first ticket of the last eight.

"Though I started out a little bit nervous, the first two games went unexpectedly well. Then I had a tough challenge from the opponent in the third game, it pushed me to adjust my mindset and try to be more aggressive. Fortunately it worked," said Wang.

World No. 2 Wang Manyu emerged victorious 3-0 over Monaco's Yang Xiaoxin. Wang managed to recover from a 10-7 deficit, landing five points in a row to claim the first game 12-10. The 24-year-old secured the victory with back-to-back game wins, 11-8 and 11-7.

Zhang Rui claimed an 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 victory over her compatriot and world No. 7 Qian Tianyi, also the first time a higher-ranked player has been overpowered in this tournament. Zhang will play against another teammate Wang Yidi.

Chen Xingtong edged out European Games winner Bernadette Szocs in five tight games, taking revenge on the Romanian who had won their previous meeting at WTT Champions Macao earlier this year.

Chen Meng and Hina Hayata of Japan played another close match. After the 29-year-old Olympic champion was dragged into a decider by her opponent, Chen ultimately sealed a last-eight berth by winning the deciding game 11-7.

World No. 1 Sun Yingsha also met strong resistance from Japanese teenage sensation Miwa Harimoto in her first match of the tournament. After a 2-2 tie in the first four sets, Sun wrapped up her victory with an eight-point streak in the deciding game.

"This is my second time playing against Miwa Harimoto, she has significantly improved, performed very well today. However it's good to win the match," said Sun.

Meanwhile, the 15-year-old prodigy said after the match that she needed to step up her game and that there was a lot to learn from Sun. "I learnt so much by playing with such a strong player. I believe it's not just the techniques that I need to improve, but also the understanding of the game. I couldn't read her face during the match," said Harimoto.

Han Ying of Germany and Mima Ito of Japan also made it to the women's singles last eight.

(With input from Xinhua)