CHENGDU, Oct. 19 -- 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."

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