Women's singles top seed Sun Yingsha of China started her World Championships with a straight games win against Austria's Amelie Solja ©Getty Images

Chinese singles top seeds Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha entered the fray with routine second-round victories at the International Table Tennis Federation World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Durban.

Both players had byes through the first round, and are safely into the last 32 of their respective events at the Durban International Convention Centre.

Olympic silver medallist Sun secured a straight-games 11-4, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 win against Austria's Amelie Solja in her opening match of the tournament.

She is set to play 27th seed Elizabeta Samara of Romania in the third round after she beat Prithika Pavade of France 11-8, 5-11, 4-11, 11-7, 14-12, 11-8.

Olympic champion Chen Meng of China, seeded third, made it back-to-back wins without dropping a game by overcoming Thailand's Jinnipa Sawettabut 11-5, 11-2, 11-2, 11-3.

Shan Xiaona of Germany is her next opponent as she staved off a comeback from Luxembourg's Ni Xialian 11-9, 11-6, 11-10, 4-11, 9-11, 7-11, 11-7 in a thriller between two of the World Championships' veterans.

The 25th seed Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand was the highest-profile casualty of the first day of second round action as she lost 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 13-11 to Hungary's Georgina Póta.

Men's singles top seed and defending champion Fan Zhendong dropped a game to experienced Greek player Panagiotis Gionis in his first match of the tournament, but proved too strong in advancing to the third round 11-4, 11-4, 9-11, 11-2, 11-8.

China's men's singles defending champion Fan Zhendong is safely through to the third round of the World Championships ©Getty Images
China's men's singles defending champion Fan Zhendong is safely through to the third round of the World Championships ©Getty Images

Fan's compatriot Ma Long, the back-to-back Olympic champion who he lost to in the singles final at Tokyo 2020, clinched a second straight-games win of the World Championships 15-13, 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 against Canada's Eugene Wang.

Another Chinese player in Liang Jingkun, the fifth seed who is a singles and doubles bronze medallist at the last two World Championships, is also through after seeing off Japan's Maharu Yoshimura 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-4, 14-12.

He is set to play Paul Drinkhall of England in the next round after he beat Croatia's Filip Zeljko 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 15-13, 11-8.

The 2021 runner-up Truls Möregårdh of Sweden is another into the third round after an 11-8, 11-1, 11-9, 16-18, 11-8 win against South Korea's Cho Seung-min.

World number 38 Wang Yang of Slovenia is the only seeded player to have lost a second round tie so far in the men's singles, going down 6-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 19-17, 15-13 to Croatia's Tomislav Pucar.

Second round singles action is due to conclude tomorrow in the South African city.