BUDAPEST, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Six Chinese players advanced beyond the opening round in the men's singles bracket of the 2019 ITTF World Tour's Hungarian Open, but national champion Zhou Yu was disqualified.
Top three seeds Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan all knocked out their competitors, with Fang Bo, Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun, also reaching the round of 16.
"This was my first day competing and my third match of the day in a row, I was trying my best all the way through," said men's singles second seed Xu Xin after a close game with Germany's Benedikt Duda.
Xu was 3-1 leading after four sets, but the German leveled the scores at 3-3 draw before Xu won the deciding set to knock out his opponent.
Top seed Fan Zhendong had an equally tough time against Kirill Gerassimenko, needing six sets to defeat the Kazakh challenger.
Elsewhere, Liang Jingkun defeated Denmark's Jonathan Groth 4-1, in a closer match than the scoreline suggested.
"Coming from the qualification rounds, I feel that I am playing better every day and getting stronger mentally," said Liang, who will now face compatriot Xu Xin in the next round. Another all-China match-up sees Lin Gaoyuan take on Fang Bo.
In contrast to the success of his fellow countrymen, former Chinese national champion Zhou Yu was knocked out after being disqualified for tampering with his paddle during his match against Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-Yuan.
Another Chinese player Yu Ziyang was also knocked out after a 4-0 defeat at the hands of England's Liam Pitchford.
