LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Women's singles second seed Wang Manyu has suffered one of the biggest upsets so far at the World Table Tennis United States Smash on Tuesday, losing in straight games to Japan's Hitomi Sato in the second round.
The second-ranked Chinese fell 12-10, 11-4, 15-13 to the wildcard player in 36 minutes.
Kuai Man, the other Chinese female paddler contesting the singles draw on Tuesday, beat Canada's Zhang Mo 11-6, 2-11, 11-7, 11-4.
Wang and Kuai won their women's doubles round-of-16 duel in straight games, 14-12, 11-6, 11-9 against Liu Yangzi of Australia and Germany's Nina Mittelham. Their teammates Wang Yidi and Chen Yi were also through after a 3-1 win over Romania's Elizabeta Samara and Bernadette Szocs.
On the men's side, world No. 1 Wang Chuqin reached the last 16 with an 11-3, 11-5, 11-9 victory over India's Manav Thakkar.
"He made big improvement recently in terms of his ability and performances, so I was well prepared for this match," Wang said after the match. "After going through a period without playing matches, I need to make adjustments as the tournament progresses with tougher matches ahead."
Wang was joined by fifth seed Lin Shidong, who swept Japan's Yuta Tanaka 11-9, 11-8, 11-5.
"Playing Tanaka again in this tournament, I did well at the start and held off his challenges. Winning the first game is quite crucial," Lin said.
In the men's doubles round of 16, Chinese duo Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen stunned French brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun 11-8, 11-4, 11-9.
Wen and Yuan, who made their WTT debut as a pair a few weeks ago at the WTT Contender Zagreb, blew the men's doubles race wide open with a straight-set victory over the 2026 Singapore Smash champions.
"We controlled the tempo well, leaving few opportunities to them," Yuan explained.
"We just tried to challenge them, and we adjusted our mentality quite well," Wen said.
Top-ranked pair Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng also made the last eight after sweeping Romania's Eduard Ionescu and Darius Movileanu 11-4, 11-2, 11-4. ■
