The Spanish couple formed by María Xiao and Álvaro Robles, overcame the first round, in mixed doubles, of the World Table Tennis Championships, which are played in Houston (USA), by winning the Mexicans Marcos Madrid and Yadira Silva 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-8 and 11-2).
Xiao and Robles will face Belgians Florent Lambiet and Nathalie Marchetti in the second round, who beat the Argentines Gastón Alto and Ana Codina 3-0.
Worse luck ran the Spanish María Xiao and Galia Dvorak in the women’s team where they were eliminated.
Xiao lost 4-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-5 and 11-9) to Hong Kong Zhu Chengzhu, while Galia Dvorak lost 4-2 (11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-8 and 11-4) against Belarusian Daria Trigolos.