Houston, USA - Nov 22, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Mixed doubles pairs training for 2021 World Table Tennis Championships
2. Various of Mixed doubles pair of Chinese player Lin Gaoyuan (M), U.S. player Lily Zhang training

Houston, USA - Nov 25, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kanak Jha, American table tennis player:
"Yeah, we're really happy, I mean 3-0 win is really good, especially they're a very good pair from Slovakia. They reached the European championship finals. Yeah it was 3-0, but it was actually a very tight match. Every set was close, they have a lot of variation in their games, lots of different shots. But I think we prepared well and in the end, we were good in the decisive moments."
4. Spectators watching game
5. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wang Manyu, Chinese table tennis player:
"Starting from today's training, I found my cooperation with Kanak is getting much better than our first match. We played better in today's match as we became more familiar with each other."

Houston, USA - Nov 23, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Various of people at ticket office

Houston, USA - Nov 25, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Lin Gaoyuan, Chinese table tennis player:
"I appreciate those who have come from so far to support us for our China-U.S. combination. I'm very grateful to them."

Houston, USA - Nov 23, 2021 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. People at ticket office

Two mixed doubles pairings featuring both a Chinese and a U.S. paddler continued to impress at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Texas, as they advanced into the last 16 in thrilling fashion on Thursday night.

Despite limited training time, the pairs managed to win their debut matches with relative ease on Tuesday. Maintaining the momentum, Jha Kanak and Wang Manyu swatted aside Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova from Slovakia 11-8, 11-9, 12-10 on Thursday night, while Lin Gaoyuan and Lily Zhang came from behind to outclass German duo Qiu Dang and Nina Mittelham 12-14, 11-8, 11-3, 12-10.

Jha said though meeting a big challenge in their encounter with the Slovak pair, they finally defeated them thanks to their close cooperation.

"Yeah, we're really happy, I mean 3-0 win is really good, especially they're a very good pair from Slovakia. They reached the European championship finals. Yeah it was 3-0, but it was actually a very tight match. Every set was close, they have a lot of variation in their games, lots of different shots. But I think we prepared well and in the end, we were good in the decisive moments," said Jha.

Wang, the newly crowned Tokyo Olympics women's team champion, agreed with her partner's sentiments.

"Starting from today's training, I found my cooperation with Kanak is getting much better than our first match. We played better in today's match as we became more familiar with each other," said Wang.

Many fans came to the scene to cheer on for their idols, and some of them even flew from Canada, for which the athletes expressed their thanks.

"I appreciate those who have come from so far to support us for our China-U.S. combination. I'm very grateful to them," said Lin, the men's singles fifth seed.

The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, in its 56th edition and the first competition held in the United States, will play on until Nov. 29.

As this year marks the 50th anniversary of Ping Pong Diplomacy, the U.S. and China have joined forces with two mixed doubles pairs formed of both American and Chinese paddlers entering the competition.

Ping Pong Diplomacy refers the exchange of U.S. and Chinese table tennis players in the early 1970s that paved the way for former U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972 and heralded the normalization of bilateral relations.