Staring defeat in the face by the close of game four, Jang saved two match points before eventually taking game five to keep his hopes alive.

All the momentum was with the South Korean as he dominated game six before winning the decider to beat the Japanese star 6-11, 2-11, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 11-2, 11-5.

There were no issues for world number one and reigning champion Fan Zhendong who stormed to an 11-6, 11-2, 11-5, 11-7 triumph against Jeoung Young-sik of South Korea.

Fan can now look forward to a quarter-final meeting with Brazilian Hugo Calderano, who was equally impressive in seeing off England’s Liam Pitchford 11-4, 11-4, 13-11, 12-10.

In the other half of the draw, Ma Long of China was in dominant form as he dispatched German Patrick Franziska 12-10, 11-1, 11-6, 11-4.

Up next for the five-time champion is Sweden’s Mattias Falck, who edged a seven-game thriller against Frenchman Simon Gauzy.

After going two games down, Gauzy came hurtling back to level the scores only for Falck to show his strength of character to win 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 7-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-7.

World number two Xu Xin of China swept through to the last eight with a 12-10, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 victory over Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna.

In the women’s event, Chen launched her bid for an unprecedented fourth successive ITTF Finals title with a hard-fought victory over Miyu Kato of Japan.

The world number one did not have it all her own way, dropping two games in an 11-6, 13-11, 7-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4 triumph.

Chen will hope to step things up against Germany’s 14th seed Petrissa Solja, who marched through to the last eight with an impressive 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9 win over Singapore’s Feng Tianwei.

South Korean Suh Hyo-won dropped one game in her win against Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan while compatriot Jeon Ji-hee lost 11-8, 3-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 to China’s Sun Yingsha

There were also straight-game wins with Chinese pair Wang Yidi and Wang Manyu, defeating Sofia Polcanova of Austria and Hitomi Sato of Japan respectively.

A limited number of fans have been permitted to attend to the event at Zhengzhou Olympic Sports Center, with the organisers putting in place a series of coronavirus countermeasures.

"In Weihai, we welcomed back the players," said Steve Dainton, chief executive of the ITTF.

"In Zhengzhou, we are welcoming back the fans.

"Being here is hugely emotional.

"We feel proud, we feel happy and we have so many emotions that it’s hard to describe.

"To restart table tennis has been a huge effort.

"Back in June, we knew that this pandemic was not going away soon and that organising international events would be very difficult.

"We knew that we had to try to find a special way.

"Now we can proudly say that the hard work is paying off. 

"We are back in action and the future for table tennis is bright."

The ITTF Finals have replaced the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, which were cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and feature only men's singles and women's singles.

The competition continues tomorrow and is due to finish on November 22.