China's Ding Ning reaches last 16 at table tennis worlds

China's Ding Ning returns the ball during the women's singles third round at the World Table Tennis Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany, June 1, 2017. [Photo/VCG]?

DUSSELDORF, Germany - Defending champion and world No 1 Ding Ning of China defeated Ni Xialian 4-0 to reach the last 16 of the women's singles event at the World Table Tennis Championships here on Thursday.

Ding, also the Olympic champion, wasted little time to beat the former Chinese player Ni, now representing Luxemburg. She will next take on another former Chinese player Li Jie for a place in the quarterfinals.

Li, now playing for the Netherlands, eliminated Chinese-American Lily Zhang 4-1.

Ding had earlier secured a berth in the women's doubles quarterfinals after she paired with Liu Shiwen to defeat Japan's Miu Hirano, the newly crowned Asian champion, and Ishikawa Kasumi.

Ding's four teammates also won their women's singles matches without dropping a single game.

World No 2 Liu beat Suh Hyowon of South Korea, third-ranked Zhu Yulong defeated Kim Kyungah, also of South Korea, Mu Zi routed another former Chinese player Li Qian, now representing Poland and world No 5 Chen Meng outplayed Dana Cechova of the Czech Republic.