Top seed Xu Xin of China fought back from 1-3 down to beat Tang Peng of Hong Kong, China to reach the quarterfinals of the men's table tennis World Cup here on Saturday.

Xu, ranked second in the world, slumped to 1-3 after taking the first game 11-6, losing 11-13, 8-11, 8-11, but the only penholder in the tournament won the next two 11-4, 11-7 to make it 3-3.

Tang, 31, a former member of the Chinese national team, went ahead 5-1 in the decider but fell at the crucial moment 6-11.

"I know that taking two games is enough to take me to the last eight," Xu said. "But you need to win every match en route to take the title."

Xu, a semifinalist last year, crushed Germany's Patrick Baum 4-1 in the first match. A 4-2 defeat to Tang should have also taken him to the knockout stage.

In the other matches, Timo Boll of Germay beat Marcos Freitas of Portugal 14-12, 17-15, 11-5, 13-11, his compatriot Dimitrij Ovtcharov defeated Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei 11-6, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9 and Chuang Chih-Yuan, also of Chinese Taipei, labored to beat South Korea's Jung Youngsik 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11,11-7,9-11, 11-4.

Boll, Ovtcharov and Chen all qualified for the last eight as group leaders alongside Xu. Endit

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