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.

Niu Jianfeng (L)

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.

Zhang Yining

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 today'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 October 28, 2004)