Action from the women’s singles main draw at the 2007 Liebherr Qatar Open table tennis championship at the Aspire Academy, yesterday.

DOHA • World number one Liqin Wang from China notched up impressive victories to move into the third round of the men’s singles in the 2007 Liebherr Qatar Open table tennis championship at the Aspire Academy yesterday.

Wang, bidding for his third successive title here in Doha, beat Ruiwu Tan 11-6, 11-8, 11-2, 11-4 in the opening round match and later eased past Rade Markovic of Serbia 11-9, 16-14, 11-8, 8-11, 11-4 to book a spot in the round of 16.

Also moving into the pre-quarterfinals stage was world number two Lin Ma, who got the better of Russian Igor Rubtsov 11-6, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 and a 11-1, 11-6, 11-4, 6-11, 11-6 verdict over Hong Kong’s Lai Chak Ko in the second round.

In the third round today, Wang will meet Korea’s Jung Woo Lee while Ma faces Zoran Primorac.

The women’s world number one Yining Zhang too had a easy day as she too reached the pre-quarterfinals with twin victories. Zhang won against Italian Laura Negrisoli in the first round and in the next phase she beat Veronika Pavlovich of Belarus.