Power failed in both the mail competition hall and practice hall of the Zagreb Worlds at 12:00 local time and it was resumed about 20 minutes later.

Organizers blamed overload for the power outage but didn't give specific reasons.

"If it happens again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, it will be a big, big problem," said an International Table Tennis Federation official who asked not to be named.

Last time a blackout happened in a major table tennis event was in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when Chinese Wang Tao resumed his power play after the unexpected break to beat Belarus' Vladimir Samsonov in the quarter-finals.