Chinese stars Ma Lin and Wang Hao booked their quarter-final berths at the men's World Cup table tennis tournament on Thursday, while title holder Timo Boll of Germany is on his way home.

Ma Lin, the 4-0 winner over Belgian Jean-Michel Saive earlier this afternoon, beat Chuan Chih-Yuan from Chinese Taipei 4-1 (7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, 12-10) in Group A.

The world top singles player Ma said: "I had lost to Chuan before, but now I know how to play him. I've got confidence from this victory."

Wang Hao became the first player in Group D to enter the last eight after he ousted Austria's world champion Werner Schlager and Germay's Torben Wosik, runner-up at European Championships, both in straight sets.

Schlager, who did not play for more than three months duo to a right toe injury, appeared rusty against Wang's fierce attacks but still pushed South Korea's Ryu Seung Min to seven games, losing narrowly 4-3 (11-9, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4).

Leading at the beginning, defending champion Boll had many chances to send off Chiang Peng-Lung of Chinese Taipei, but he missed them all and had to concede his second game of the day with 4-3 (11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 9-11, 11-3, 10-12, 5-11).

"Chiang played better today and I did not show my best," said the 22-year-old Boll. "I had chances but I made too many mistakes. Just as I said, it is not easy to win the back-to-back World Cup."

In his third and last group match on Friday, Boll will meet Johnny Huang of Canada, who beat Chiang 4-3.

"My last hope is to beat Huang 4-0," said Boll. "If Huang ousts Alexei Smirnov, who gave me first defeat, and Smirnov beats Chiang, I may enter the quarter-finals, but the chance is slim."

Group C was also in a chaos after former world champion Wang Liqin was beaten by Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece 4-2 (7-11, 11-4, 9- 11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-13).

Wang, Kreanga and world silver medalist Joo Se Hyuk of South Korea both had one victory so far while Joo crushed Kreanga 4-2.

Wang needs to overcome Joo in his third match to move into the quarter-finals.

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