体坛英语新闻：Wildcard Lily Zhang makes upsets to reach ITTF Women's World Cup semis

CHENGDU, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Pan-American table tennis champion Lily Zhang proved herself the giant killer and reached the semifinals at the ITTF Women's World Cup here on Saturday.

The 23-year-old wildcard entry from the United States sent former winner Miu Hirano packing before edging world No. 16 Sofia Polcanova, both in seven sets.

"As a wildcard, my goal for the tournament had been to survive the first stage," said Zhang, who qualified for the knockouts with a runner-up finish in Group A after beating Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico but losing to Bernadette Szocs of Romania.

Facing Japanese teenage star Hirano in the last 16, Zhang started strongly by winning the first two sets before the 2016 Cup holder and 2017 Asian Championships' surprising winner came back to turn over the table 3-2.

Zhang, however, firmly held her nerve to force out a decider and wrapped it up 12-10, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5 over the 19-year-old Hirano, who just paddled off her campaign Saturday morning after entering the main draw automatically as the fourth seed.

It has been the biggest upset at the ongoing three-day tournament starting on Friday.

"She is much higher than me in the world ranking, so I felt under no pressure at all," said Zhang, who'd never gone beyond the round of 16 before Saturday's third-time outing in the Cup. "She is very fast, but I am speedy as well, so I feel very comfortable playing against her."

The six-time U.S. national champion headed to Chengdu off the back of a spectacular showing at the 2019 Pan American Table Tennis Championships in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, winning all four titles she was eligible to compete for.

Ranked 49th in the world, Zhang then rallied past the eighth-seeded Austrian Polcanova later on Saturday evening, beating the top ranked European player 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8.

The California-raised American-born-Chinese will next play world No. 5 and second seed here Liu Shiwen in the semifinals, after the four-time World Cup title holder defeated two Chinese Taipei paddlers in a row, beating Chen Szu-Yu 4-1 and easing past Cheng I-Ching in straight sets.

Sunday's other semifinal will pit the 2017 Cup winner Zhu Yuling and Singapore veteran Feng Tianwei.

Zhu beat Canada's Zhang Mo and Germany's former European champion Petrissa Solja to reach the last four without losing a set, while Feng ousted Romanian qualifier Bernadette Szocs 4-0 before holding off Japanese Olympian Kasumi Ishikawa in full sets.