Chinese paddler Wang withdraws from Asian championships for family reasons

BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Wang Manyu has withdrawn from the Asian Table Tennis Championships due to family issues and will be replaced by Chen Xingtong, the Chinese table tennis team announced on Monday.

"Wang Manyu has to pull out of the Asian Championships as she went back home to deal with some issues," revealed China's chief coach Li Sun, who added that the Chinese team had applied to the Asian Table Tennis Union for Wang's replacement with Chen.

After falling to her compatriot Sun Yingsha in the women's singles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) China Smash on Sunday, Wang had been scheduled to play the women's singles, doubles and team events in the Asian Championships.

As the reigning champion, China directly reaches the last eight in both women's and men's team competitions, with its first matches in the two categories slated for Tuesday.

The 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from October 7 to 13. As the Asian qualifiers for the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, it will also produce some qualification quotas for the worlds.

The Chinese team, including world No. 1s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, departed for Astana earlier on Monday. ■