Fan and Ding stun mixed doubles top seeds at table tennis worlds

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Wong Chun Ting and Doo Chun Ting were the biggest casualties on Monday night as the top-seeded Hong Kong pair were ruthlessly swatted aside by the newly formed duo of Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning at the International Table Tennis Federation World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Fan and Ding, both of whom harbor individual title ambitions and had never played together as a team before, delivered a match deserving of a bigger stage with a scoreline 11-7, 11-9, 18-16, 11-5 and progressed into the last 16 of the mixed doubles competition.

The Chinese pair hardly broke a sweat when they dispatched Hungary's Nandor Ecseki and Dora Madarasz 11-1, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6, 11-5 in the first round earlier in the day.

"We were getting used to the court and will be better prepared for the future matches," said the 28-year-old Ding. "When we were in the match, both of us were fully focused on ourselves and our own tactical plans."

Next up for Fan and Ding will be France's Tristan Flore and Laura Gasnier, who overcame Ukraine's Yaroslav Zhmudenko and Solomiya Brateyko 11-1, 11-5, 11-13, 11-5, 11-4.

Meanwhile, another Chinese duo Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen also cruised into the next round after edging out the Czech pair of Tomas Polansky and Hana Matelova in straight sets.

In the men's doubles first round, both Ma Long/Wang Chuqin, and Liang Jingkun/Lin Gaoyuan eased into the second round, while Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu and Chen Meng/Zhu Yuling also emerged triumphant in the first round of the women's doubles.

(Cover Photo: Ding Ning and Fan Zhendong in action during the International Table Tennis Federation World Championships in Budapest. /Courtesy of ITTF Official Website)