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| World No 3 Niu Jianfeng serving against
Lau Sui Fei of HK during 2004 Table Tennis World Cup in Hangzhou on October 27,
2004. [Xinhua] |
HANGZHOU, Zhejiang Province: World No 3 Niu
Jianfeng of China produced the biggest upset on the first day of the 2004
Table Tennis World Cup as she suffered shocking losses to Lau Sui Fei of
Hong Kong by 4-3 and top European player Tamara Boros of Croatia by 4-0 in
the Group C competition.
The results mean Niu almost certainly misses a quarter-final place. The
top two finishers of the four-person group will advance.
Lau then lost to Otilia Badescu of Romania after her victory over Niu
and gave the Chinese a chance..
However, there was consolation for Chinese fans from world No 1 Zhang
Yining, who advanced into the quarter-finals with two convincing wins in the Group A competition.
With defending champion Wang Nan and Niu being shocked in the first
round, Zhang opened her campaign with a 4-0 demolition of Mihaela-loana Steff of
Romania.
The Athens Olympic champion later easily triumphed over world No 7 Li
Jia Wei of Singapore by 4-1.
Wang was stunned 4-3 in the Group B match by former China's world
champion Gao Jun, who now plays for the United States.
Gao was then assured a quarter-final spot by overpowering Wu Xue of the
Dominican Republic by 4-2. Boros joined Gao and Zhang in the knockout
stage.
Wang returned and defeated Tie Yana of Hong Kong by 4-2 later last
night, but has to win Thursday's third match in order to advance.
Wild card Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus was the surprise winner in
Group D as she defeated world No 6 Kim Kyung-ah of South Korea and Funke
Oshonaike of Nigeria, making her the fourth to go into the
quarters.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2004-10-27 10:27