Japan's Ai Fukuhara and An Konishi swept aside Swedish pair Susanne Jonsson and Marie Olsson 4-1 to advance to the third round of the women's doubles competition at the World Table Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
The 14-year-old Fukuhara, the youngest-ever member of the national team, and Konishi had little trouble in pumping out the 11-7, 14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4 win after both had secured their places in the women's singles third round in Bercy earlier in the day.
Fukuhara overcame world No. 12 Li Jia Wei of Singapore 4-2, Konishi thrashed Gao Jing Yi of Ireland 4-0 and Ai Fujinuma also advanced but Aya Umemura crashed out of the singles after going down in straight sets to Lu Yun-feng of Taiwan.
In men's action, Toshio Tasaki toughed out a 4-3 win over Germany's Torben Wosik and was the only Japanese to progress to the third round of the singles after veteran Koji Matsushita was beaten by Werner Schlager of Austria 4-0.