Wong Chun Ting competes during the men's singles round of 16 match between Wong Chun Ting of China's Hong Kong and Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan at T2 Diamond 2019 Malaysia table tennis tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, July 18, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)
KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese table tennis players swept across the first round at the T2 Diamond 2019 Malaysia in Malaysia's state of Johor, scoring victories in the men's singles and women's singles on Thursday.
The tournament featuring world's top table tennis players saw world No. 1 Xu Xin of China dealt a crushing blow to Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4-0.
Women's singles No. 1 Chen Meng defeated Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong, China, despite the latter's best effort, pulling close in the second and third sets but ultimately lost 4-2 when Chen bounced back and sealed her victory with a FAST5 victory.
The tournament imposes unique rules: each match is limited to 24 minutes and matches 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.
Lin Gaoyuan beat his Chinese compatriot Wang Chuqin 4-1 in a close fight while World No. 5 Ma Long easily secured victory against Simon Gauzy of France with the latter proving to have more style than skill, wowing the audience with several stunts but ultimately succumbing 4-1 to Ma.
Wong Chun Ting of China's Hong Kong beat Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto 4-2, with Wong skillfully drawing his opponent into making risky moves and failing to take advantage of his chances in the FAST5.
The Chinese team kept up their momentum in the women's singles with Wang Manyu quickly beating Austrian Sofia Polcanova, while Sun Yingsha beat Chen Szu-yu of Chinese Taipei 4-0 in the only match finished in 24 minute in the first day.
Japan's Miyu Kato beat her compatriot Mima Ito 4-3 in a fiercely contested game with the higher-ranked Ito almost pulling off victory through three FAST5 games but failed by a narrow miss on her final shot.
The tournament continues on Friday with the remaining 16 of 32 players vying to knock out their opponents and qualify for Saturdays quarterfinals.
