Tie Yana won a rare encounter with Hong Kong teammate Lau Siu-fei to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in Xiaoshen last night. Tie recovered from losing the opening two games to beat Lau 4-2 (9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8).
She now faces the world number one and reigning Olympic champion Zhang Yining of China, a player Tie has not beaten in major competition while wearing Hong Kong's colours.
Tie's one significant victory over the red-hot Zhang was in the semi-finals of the 2001 Universidade, when both players were competing for the mainland.
Zhang reached the last four in Xiaoshen by defeating South Korea's Kim Kyung-ah in straight sets: 11-2, 11-2, 11-8, 11-7.
In the group stages Lau had helped create one of the few shocks by defeating China's Niu Jianfeng for the first time on the opening day of competition, a result that contributed to the world number three's elimination.
In the men's event, which is being held concurrently with the women's World Cup for the first time, Chinese stars Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao have all guaranteed their places in the knock-out stages by winning their groups with spotless records.
