The top two seeds in the Xinjiang Women's World Cup, China's Zhang Yining and Guo Yan, both finished the opening day on Friday 29th September 2006 unbeaten; neither being extended the full seven games distance.

Zhang Yining, having beaten Japan's Ai Fukuhara in her opening duel, ended the day with a six games victory over Gao Jun of the United States, whilst Guo Yan, who had started proceedings with success over Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus, concluded her program on the first day of play with a five games defeat of Hong Kong's Lin Ling.

At the end of the first day's play in Urumqi the two Chinese stars where in top position in their respective groups with one win and one defeat being the order of the day the players they had defeated.

In Group One, Gao Jun and Ai Fukuhara both overcame Egypt's Bacent Osman whilst in Group Two Lin Ling and Viktoria Pavlovich both accounted for Brazil's Ligia Silva.

However, the most impressive player on day one was Hong Kong's Tie Yana. She beat both Germany's Nicole Struse and Singapore's Li Jia Wei in four straight games. Both notable victories especially when taken into consideration the fact that the last time Tie Yana met either player in a World Ranking event, she lost.

At the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in December 2005 she lost in the semi-finals to Lia Jia Wei, whilst at the Liebherr Qatar Open in February 2006 she was beaten by the same margin by Nicole Struse in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile in Group Four, the one unbeaten player is Austria's Liu Jia; having defeated China's Li Xiaoxia in the afternoon, she ended her efforts for the day with a five games win over New Zealand's Karen Li. The latter had earlier lost to Korea's Kim Kyung Ah who in turn was beaten by Li Xiaoxia.

The top two players in each group proceed to the quarter-finals; each player has one match remaining in the group stage.

(CRI September 30, 2006)