Top seed Lin advances into last 16 at TT worlds

DOHA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Top-seeded Lin Shidong from China reached the last 16 of the men's singles at the World Table Tennis Championships following a stunning loss in the mixed doubles fourth round on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old overcame a slow start to defeat world No. 74 Kristian Karlsson of Sweden 8-11, 11-1, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9.

"He is a very strong player and I played a good match, but it was not enough," said Karlsson.

"Normally I play with a lot of power, but Lin was way faster than me. I played the first ball quite hard, but he caught it, and I was too slow to follow up."

Earlier in the day, as the top seeds in mixed doubles, Lin and Kuai Man were upset by 16th-seeded Japanese Maharu Yoshimura and Satsuki Odo 3-1 (8-11, 11-5, 13-11, 12-10), leaving Olympic champions Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha as the only pair from Team China in contention. Enditem