World Cup four-time winner Ma Lin was the other one finding his rhythm during the year-ending event.

The 27-year-old found his way back to top form after a month in low and eased past Japanese top male paddler Kan Yo 11-7, 11-9, 15-13, 12-10.

With the victory, Ma set up a quarterfinal clash against Europe's best player Timo Boll after the latter won a German Derby 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 over Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

"It's my best performance recently," Ma told press at a post-match news conference.

In other matches of the day, all Chinese have breezily skipped over their first hurdle as Ma Long came out the second Chinese reaching the men's quarters after denying 14-ranked Chuan Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei 15-13, 11-5, 13-11, 11-4.

Ma Long will next meet former Chinese Yang Zi, who was the winner of an all-Singaporean match against Gao Ning, 11-4, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5.

On the women's part, world number two Wang Nan crashed Japanese Sayaka Hirano in straight sets, her fellow Chinese Guo Yan beat Lin Ling of Hong Kong 4-1, and Jiang Huajun kept Hong Kong's chance alive by winning 4-1 over Singapore's Feng Tianwei.

The Finals, an annual event by the world table tennis governing body slated on December 13-16 in the Beijing University Gymnasium, feature nearly all top paddlers with enough ProTour points and have an immediate impact on the Olympic qualifications.

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