South Korean paddler Yoon Jae Young survived a scare from Australian William Henzell who mounted gusty challenge against him in the Olympic men's table tennis singles competition on Wednesday.

Young, ranked 25th, was made to sweat when 145th-ranked Henzell blew a 2-0 lead in the first two sets. Young fought back to dominate later half of the match before wining 4-3.

Henzell beat Algerian Idir Khourta and Swiss Jens Lundqvist to advance to the second round of singles competition.

His compatriots Kyle Davis and David Zalcberg were both thumped by Egyptian and Vietnamese opponents in the premilinary round.

Meanwhile, 43rd-ranked Tan Ruiwu of Croatia outlasted Japanese Seiya Kishikawa in 45 minutes. Kishikawa took the opening tie but trailed all the way to lose the match 4-1.

Korbel Petr of the Czech Republic was brushed aside by Polish Lucjan Blaszczyk 4-2 and former Chinese player He Zhiwen from Spain was also outgunned by Jang Song Man of DPRK by the same score.

The singles event involved 78 men and 77 women. The top 16 men, only six of whom are non-Asians, will not take to the tables until the third round which begins on Thursday.

The table tennis tournament, held in the 8,000-seat stadium in Peking University, is scheduled to last 11 days starting from August 13.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)