The four top seeds battled through to the semifinals of the men's table tennis at the Asian Games on Thursday, but it was a different story among the women where Feng Tianwei crashed out.
Despite pushing on, it was no stroll for some of the world's top men paddlers.
World No.1 and Chinese star Ma Long was a game down against Taiwan's Chuang Chih-yuan before storming back to win 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-1, 11-8.
“I could feel how stressed Ma was when he lost two consecutive games,” said coach Liu Guoliang. “But that adversity provided a good experience for Ma to learn from.
“In the fourth game, when the score was 11-10 with Ma trailing by a point, I told him to stay calm and wait for Chuang to make mistakes.
“I could see how eagerly Chuang wanted to win — it was his aggressiveness that pushed Ma to play more positively.
Hao tested
Compatriot and World No. 3 Wang Hao was also tested by South Korean Oh Sang-Eun; Wang's greater stamina finally saw him through.
Joo Sae-Hyuk, the World No. 8, kept South Korean medal hopes alive as he prevailed over Hong Kong's Tang Peng with ease, booking his place in the last four with an 11-3, 11-5, 11-9, 11-3 victory.
Mizutani prevails
The other semifinalist will be Japan's Jun Mizutani, who saw off stubborn Singaporean Gao Ning four games to two. It earned him a crack at Wang while Ma faces Joo.
Singapore's Feng, the women's top seed, fell to China's resurgent Li Xiaoxia.
China-born Feng, who has not been at her best here, won the first game, but Li fought back to take the match 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7, 11-4. Li, former World No. 1, has been inching back to top form after an appendix operation.
Easy for Yue
The second seed, China's Guo Yue, earned a semifinal berth with a straightforward 12-10, 13-11, 11-8, 11-8 win over Hong Kong's Jiang Huajun.
South Korea's Kim Kyung-Ah, the third seed, and Japan's Ai Fukuhara made up the last four.
