China's top paddler downplays racquet change for loss

China's world No 1 men's paddler Wang Chuqin has played down the impact of a forced racquet change on his unexpected opening loss in the singles tournament at the Paris Olympics.

Entering the singles draw from Tuesday's mixed doubles final win with partner Sun Yingsha, Wang's highly anticipated golden run in singles was derailed abruptly by perhaps the biggest upset across all sports at the Games on Wednesday after he lost to Sweden's Truls Moregard 4-2 in the round of 32 at the South Paris Arena.

Wang's shocking defeat has caused an uproar in Chinese social media, with his huge legion of fans fuming at a group of photographers who rushed onto the court to capture his victory celebration with Sun following Tuesday's mixed doubles win and stepping over his paddle left aside the court, breaking it into two pieces.

Wang had to use his backup paddle as a replacement on Wednesday, yet he reiterated that wasn't the excuse for his subpar performance in the singles.

"It was just my poor performance and bad adjustment between different sets today that should be blamed for the loss. The paddle is the same. It's also mine as well. So I won't say it had a big impact at all," Wang said after the match in the mixed zone.

Moregard, a 22-year-old world No 26, sank to his knees in disbelief before taking a victory tour to acknowledge the cheering crowd, who rose in appreciation for his giant-killing performance at the packed arena.

"I was playing fantastic table tennis. I stuck to my plan that I had, and I really believed in it. I continued even if I lost two games in the middle. I played fantastic table tennis and it was really, really good," Moregard said.

"I'm in complete shock. I'm just super happy and will try to recover as fast as I can."