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Roundup: Veteran paddlers Ni and He into the second round at Rio

Xinhua, August 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ni Xialian of Luxemburg and He Zhiwen of Spain, both are in their 50s, are roughly twice as old as some of their youngest rivals. But they still made into the second round of Olympic table tennis singles event here on Saturday.

The 53-year-old Ni, formerly a Chinese national team player, is competing in her fourth Olympics. Despite a lack of swift move, she still managed to control the rhythm and come back from 1-3 down to overcome local player Caroline Kumahara 4-3.

"She played better than I expected. Her aggressive style of play posed much threat to me. Fortunately, strong mentality helped me a lot during the game," said Ni.

Ni booked a second-round encounter with Spain's Shen Yanfei, also a former Chinese team player.

"I hope that I can enjoy the game. Shen is a very excellent player. I will keep a low profile against her. Undoubtedly, I will do my best," she added.

He, 54, beat Feng Yijun of the United States 4-2 to set up a second-round matchup with Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei, who shocked Grand Slam winner Zhang Jike in a seven-game thriller in ITTF Korea Open this June.

The winner between He and Chen will face Zhang in the third round on Monday.

Women's top seed Ding Ning will face Romanian Elizabeta Samara in the last 32, while men's top seed Ma Long will take on the winner between Jonathan Groth of Denmark and Benedek Olah of Finland. Endit