The world's top ranked Chinese Ma Lin and Wang Liqin suffered stunning defeats on the first day of the lucrative ITTF Pro Tour Finals on Thursday.

Sweden's Jens Lundqvist showed he might someday fill in the giant shoes of his legendary compatriot Jan-Ove Waldner as he shocked Ma Lin in the first round of the 240,000 US dollars event.

The lanky Swede was quick on his feet and played a powerful right-handed attacking game, beating the newly-crowned World Cup holder 4-2 (4-11, 13-11, 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9).

"Fantastic! It's the first time I beat world No. 1. It is the most important victory of my career," said Lundqvist, ranked 32nd in the world.

"I was disappointed yesterday when I was drawn against Ma Lin. I was nervous at the beginning of the game, but after I won the second set to make it 1- 1, I felt confident," he added.

"The two had never met and Ma Lin wasn't comfortable with Lundqvist's serves," said China's head coach Liu Guoliang.

South Korea's Ryu Seung-Min, rated 12th in the world, played a desperately aggressive game for a seven-set (6-11, 15-13, 7-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8) victory over world No. 2 Wang Liqin, who is notorious for choking in clutch moments.

The other four Chinese men fared well on the first day, with the most spectacular victory from world No. 11 Chen Qi, who upset reigning world champion Werner Schlager 4-1 (11-8, 11-3, 15-17, 11-8, 11-5).

The Austrian, who has been battling injuries since he won his country's only second world championship title in history, wilted under the attacks as his teenager Chinese opponent combined his usual array of table tennis wares to deadly effect.

Wang Hao and Hao Shuai made it to the second round at the expense of two Swedes. World No. 4 Wang crushed veteran Peter Karlsson in five sets and No. 18 Hao routed Frederik Hakansson 4-0.

Liu Guozheng, No. 8, moved up with a 4-1 win over Chinese Taipei's Chiang Peng-Lung.

In other men's games, Greek Kalinikos Kreanga whitewashed Russian Alexei Smirnov 4-0, and defending champion Chuan Chih-Yuan from Chinese Taipei shut out South Korea's Oh Sang-Eun 4-2.

The women's singles first round went just as the world rankings suggested. Five out of six Chinese made it to the second round after beating the lower-ranked rivals.

Zhang Yining, Wang Nan, Guo Yan, Niu Jianfeng and Guo Yue, ranked first to fifth in the world, faced little challenge from the other end of the table, while Li Nan, ranked ninth, fell to No. 7 Tie Yana from Hong Kong, China.

Europe, which had only two representatives here, is down to one as Croatian Tamara Boros beat Austrian Liu Jia in four sets.

In an all Hong Kong game, Lin Ling outlasted Sam Ah Sim 4-1.

The men's and women's singles winners here will pocket 38,000 and 26,000 US dollars respectively and each drive home a Volkswagen Beatle.



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