Table tennis national player Ying Han was the only German to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championships in South Africa.
The ninth in the world rankings won in 4-0 sets against the Slovakian Tatiana Kukulkova and will now meet the current number one in the world, Sun Yingsha, in the round of the top eight on Friday.
The 40-year-old Han lost to the Chinese in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics and in the third round of the 2021 World Cup in Houston.
Ying Han was also born in China and moved to Germany in 2002. In 2010 she took on German citizenship and since 2013 she has been playing at club level for the top Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg. In 2022 and 2023 she won the European Top 16 tournament. She is currently the best European in the world rankings, ahead of the Austrian Sofia Polcanova and her national team colleague Nina Mittelham.
Team European Champion Mittelham was eliminated in the round of 16 in Durban on Thursday. The 26-year-old lost 4-1 to defending champion Wang Manyu of China.