Territory's Chai crashes out to lower-ranked Taiwanese Xu

HONG KONG'S world number three Chai Po-wa crashed out of the World Championships here yesterday when she lost 17-21, 21-19, 21-14, 21-14 to Xu Jing of Taiwan in the third round.

Third-seeded Chai had beaten Xu in the team competition but had lost to the 30th-ranked former mainland Chinese competitor in earlier meetings.

The territory's team manager David Cheng said: 'They were quite evenly matched. It was down to who played better on the night and the Taiwanese performed to a higher level. It was disappointing but she [Chai] was very tired after the Commonwealth Championships and the team event.' Hong Kong's other top woman player Chan Tan-lui, singles bronze medallist at the 1991 world championships, is looking forward to her fourth-round match with China's number two seed Qiao Hong at the World Championships today.

Chan, seeded 16th, cruised into the last 16 with a 21-13, 21-12, 21-11 destruction of Slovakia's Zuzana Poliackova yesterday to set up a crack at the mercurial Qiao.

Beijing-born Chan, who has represented Hong Kong for more than six years, has beaten Qiao four times in their 10 meetings at major competitions and she is not writing off her chances this time.

'She is a very strong player but I have a good record against her,' said Chan, a previous top-10 player whose world ranking has slipped to number 21.

'I beat her in the final of the 1989 Japan Open and again in the semi-finals of the China Open so I know I can do it.