STOCKHOLM, Nov. 16 -- Chinese paddlers met little challenge en route to the second round of the ITTF World Tour Swedish Open here on Thursday. World champion Ding Ning finished a sweep in women's singles round of 32, her first international match in almost five months.
Seven paddlers from the Chinese team featuring on Thursday all went through men's singles first round. Top seed Fan Zhendong eliminated South Korea's Jang Woojin 11-1, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9, and will meet Benedikt Duda of Germany in the second round.
Qualifier Zhou Yu bounced back from a 2-3 deficit after five games to upset Chinese Taipei's veteran Chuang Chih-Yuan through a seven-game thriller.
Zhou will next face fellow Chinese Yan An, who saw off Masataka Morizono of Japan in straight games.
Liu Dingshuo, who also went through qualifiers, shocked Frenchman Emmanuel Lebesson 11-7, 12-10, 11-7, 3-11, 13-11, booking another upcoming all-Chinese clash with Lin Gaoyuan, as the latter eased past Maharu Yoshimura of Japan 4-0.
In the bottom half, second-seeded Xu Xin swept Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei. Xu's teammate Fang Bo also got past Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan 4-1.
Fan and Xu combined to beat Pavel Platonov and Kirill Skachkov 11-3, 6-11, 11-2, 11-7 in doubles round of 16.
Ding last played in China Open in June, where she beat compatriot Sun Yingsha in the final. The Grand Slam winner beat Sofia Polcanova of Austria 11-7, 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 in her first match back to the stage.
Ding will next face teammate Chen Ke, who eliminated Jeon Jihee of South Korea after six games.
After upsetting Japanese promising star Mima Ito 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, Sun Mingyang set up another all-Chinese clash with Zhang Qiang in the second round.
Gu Yuting and Li Xiaodan also marched on in the top half, but Li Jiayi suffered a bit disappointment as she fell short after seven games against Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei.
Zhu Yuling, women's World Cup holder, beat Japan's Miyuu Kihara 4-1. Chen Meng, who claimed the German Open title last weekend, got past Lee Ho Ching of Hong Kong, China 4-2.
Much surprise arrived for Chen Xingtong, as she shocked Japanese promising star Miu Hirano 4-1.
Two matches on a single day did not impact Zhu and Chen either, as they accounted for Polina Mikhailova and Viktoria Pavlovich in straight games.
The Swedish Open, final stop of the 2017 ITTF World Tour, will see four events' winners on Sunday. China's Zhang Rui was crowned in the U21 women's singles on Wednesday.