Olympic champs Fan, Chen pull out of WTT China Smash

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic gold medalists Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng have withdrawn from World Table Tennis (WTT) China Smash, the WTT announced on Tuesday.

At the Paris Olympics, Fan won the men's singles title to achieve a career Grand Slam of the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup, the three major table tennis competitions, while Chen became the third female paddler to retain her Olympic title, after her compatriots Deng Yaping and Zhang Yining.

After the duo's withdrawal, WTT updated the top five seeds' list for the men's and women's singles events.

The men's top five seeds include three Chinese paddlers - Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun and Ma Long, with Brazil's Hugo Calderano and French prodigy Felix Lebrun being the other two.

On the women's side, world No. 1 Sun Yingsha leads a Chinese quartet among the top five seeds, together with Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong, while Hina Hayata of Japan is the only non-Chinese in the top five seeds.

Prior to the WTT China Smash, Fan and Chen had already withdrawn from the WTT Champions tournament in Macao in September.

The WTT China Smash will take place in the Shougang Park of Beijing's Shijingshan District, where the Beijing Winter Olympics venue Big Air Shougang is located, from September 26 to October 6.