Table Tennis: NZ sisters win first match

New Zealand's table tennis sister act Karen and Li Chunli overcame early nerves to comfortably beat a United States women's doubles combination in straight sets today.

The 24th-ranked New Zealanders surrendered the initiative early in both sets of their opening group match before recovering to beat Jasna Reed and Tawny Bahn 21-16 21-8 at the State Sports Centre.

They next face the top-seeds in their group - Germany's Elke Schall and Nicole Struse on Monday night (10.30pm NZ time) to progress to post-section play.

The signs looked ominous early when the Americans sprang to a 5-0 lead within a minute of the start of the match.

However the Kiwis, who have barely played together this year quickly got it together and changed their service style to cramp the Americans, ranked 26th in the 34-team competition.

"We were nervous but a couple of balls into the game we sorted it out," said Japan-based Li Chunli.

They fought back to lead 8-7 and then exchanged points until Bahn made three consecutive errors to give the sisters the first set 21-16.

The New Zealanders found themselves 5-1 down in the second but made no race of the set, with Karen Li changing the spin of her service delivery to good effect.

"We were seeded to beat them but it's the Olympics so anything can happen," team manager Murray Finch said.

The sisters switch to singles play tomorrow.

- NZPA