Two women's doubles pairs gave the powerful Chinese team a strong opening on August 16 evening in the table tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as they both crushed their opponents 4-0 to book a quarterfinal berth.

In what was the Olympic debut for the Chinese team, whose players enjoyed a bye in all events in the first two days of the tournament, Guo Yue/Niu Jianfeng beat Chinese Taipei's Huang I-Hua/Lu Yun-Feng easily 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 and 11-2.

On the table next to them in the Galatsi Olympic Hall in northwest Athens, the other Chinese duo Wang Nan/Zhang Yining met some resistance from Italy's Nikoleta Stefanova/Tan Monfardini Wenling in the last two games of the match, but still managed to take both 12-10 and 14-12. The scores for the first two games were11-6 and 11-3.

"This is a good opening," commented Chinese head coach Cai Zhenhua, who had worried if his players could maintain their good forms during the long no-match period.

However, he said the Wang/Zhang pair, formed by the world's top 2 singles players, appeared a bit tense in their first match and "

only displayed some 70 percent of their real strength".

In the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday, the Guo/Niu pair will take on Japan's Fujinuma Ai/Umemura Aya while Wang and Zhang will meet Chinese Hong Kong's Song Ah Sim/Tie Yana.

As yet another evidence for Asia's dominance in women's doubles,there were 7 Asian pairs in the quarterfinals, with Croatia's Tamara Boros/Comelia Vaida being the only representatives of Europe.

The Croatian pair beat Csilla Batorfi/Krisztina Toth of Hungary 4-1 to qualify, and they will meet South Korean choppers Kim Bok Rae/Kim Kyung Ah in the quarterfinals. Another European pair in the last 16, Svetlana Ganina/Irina Palina of Russia, lost to Chinese Hong Kong's Song/Tie 4-0.

After the fourth round competition, China and South Korea turned out to be the biggest winners in women's doubles, with two pairs each in the quarterfinals. Japan, Chinese Hong Kong, the DPR Korea and Croatia had one pair each in the last eight.

However, it is already impossible for the Chinese to turn the women's doubles final into an all-Chinese affair as they did at the previous Games. The new rules adopted by the International Table Tennis Federation say that two pairs from the same association must be drawn to the same half and Guo/Niu and Wang/Zhang are set to have a fight in the semi-finals.

South Korea's Lee Eun Sil/Seok Eun Mi and the DPR Korea's Kim Hyang Mi/Kim Hyon Hui are believed to be the top favorites in the other half. However, the two pairs will have an early clash in the quarterfinals, and the survivor is highly likely to meet the Chinese in the final.

On the men's side, Chinese ace player Ma Lin finally found his opponent in his first match as the remaining eight matches of men's singles round 2 were also played Monday evening.

Ma, 2003 World Cup singles winner and now ranked 2nd in the world, will meet Croatian veteran Zoran Primorac in the last 32 playoffs, scheduled to begin Tuesday.

"He (Ma) is one of the best players in the tournament, and I think he is one of the favorites for gold medal. Still I see much chance to win," said Primorac following his 4-1 win against Srdjan Milicevic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"While Ma will play his first round tomorrow, I have already played one match and I'm used to the conditions (on the court),"

said the 35-year-old Croatian, now ranked 27th in the world.

Primorac, a five-time Olympian who won a doubles silver in Seoul 1988, was once called one of the three "European tigers" by the Chinese team along with Swedish and German veterans Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorg Rosskopf.

However, as Primorac was no longer in his best shape in recent years, what worried the Chinese coaches most now was his rich experience. This was the first Olympic Games for the 24-year-old Ma.

Results of women's doubles table tennis

Following are the results of women's doubles fourth round in the table tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Monday evening.

Women's doubles:

fourth round:

Guo Yue/Niu Jianfeng, China, bt Huang I-Hua/Lu Yun-Feng, Chinese Taipei, 4-0

Fujinuma Ai/Umemura Aya, Japan, bt Lau Sui Fei/Lin Ling, Hong Kong, China, 4-2

Song Ah Sim/Tie Yana, Hong Kong, China, bt Svetlana Ganina/Irina Palina, Russia, 4-0

Wang Nan/Zhang Yining, China, bt Nikoleta Stefanova/Tan Monfardini Wenling, Italy, 4-0

Lee Eun Sil/Seok Eun Mi, South Korea, bt Tan Paey Fern/Zhang Xueling, Singapore, 4-0

Kim Hyang Mi/Kim Hyon Hui, DPR Korea, bt Li Chunli/Karen Li, New Zealand, 4-1

Tamara Boros/Comelia Vaida, Croatia, bt Csilla Batorfi/Krisztina Toth, Hungary, 4-1

Kim Bok Rae/Kim Kyung Ah, South Korea, bt Jing Junhong/Li Jiawei, Singapore, 4-3

Top paddler Zhang too nervous in her first Olympic match

ATHENS, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- World number one Zhang Yining had yet found her tune in Athens, although the top paddler of China

and her doubles partner Wang Nan breezed past Nikoleta Stefanova and Tan Wenling of Italy with four straight sets to reach the

quarter-finals of Olympic table tennis here on Monday.

"Wang Nan performs well, while Zhang needs to improve and gets used to the special tone in Olympic Games," said Cai Zhenhua, head

coach and team leader of the Chinese table tennis team.

"She was intimated by the tense of the game and could not fight back her nerve in her first Olympic match," added Cai.

It took Zhang and Wang 26 minutes to beat the Italian pair, winning 11-6, 11-3, 12-10 and 14-12.

The second-seeded Chinese duo met a harsh challenge from the Chinese-born Tan and her fellow Italian at the last two sets, as

they were rallied to a 7-1 behind at the starting minutes of the third set.

Wang and Zhang managed to come up, fighting back on serve and forcing a string of mistakes out of their opponents at the last

minute of the set, but sealed the set win at 12-10.

For the deciding set, they failed to extend their leading place by more than two pints over their rivals , and neither did their

counterparts.

"We didn't come out, giving just 60 to 70 percent of ourselves," said Wang Nan after the match.