YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Ai Fukuhara and Sayaka Hirano came from behind to beat Germany's Elke Schall and Jiaduo Wu to advance to the quarterfinals of the women's doubles at the world table tennis championships on Saturday.
A number of glaring errors saw Fukuhara and Hirano fall 2-1 behind after taking the first set but they regrouped to beat the Germans 11-9, 5-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-4 and set up a meeting with top-seeded Chinese pair Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia in the last eight on Sunday.
Victory was particularly sweet for Fukuhara, who made a disappointing early exit in the singles competition after being knocked out by Schall in the second round on Thursday.
"We lost to Schall and Wu in March in the German Open and I was playing the player I lost to in the singles so everything was on the line in the doubles," said Fukuhara. "We just wanted to still be alive in the competition tomorrow."