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The Wisdom 2014 World Junior Championships may not as yet have been the very best for Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem; she was the player to lose the two matches in the quarter-final victory over Germany in the Girls’ Team event earlier in the week.
However, on the evening of Friday 5th December, in partnership with Minnie Soo Wai Yam, the player who had guided Hong Kong to victory in the tense duel against Germany, it was success for Doo Hoi Kem.
Determined, the duo won a hard fought second round Girls’ Doubles contest against the Russian partnership of Daria Chernova and Maria Malanina.
The Hong Kong pair emerged successful by the very narrowest of margins in a full distance five games contest (7-11, 12, 11-3, 11-4, 11-9).
Doo Hoi Kem and Minnie Soo Wai Yam started proceedings as the no.4 seeds, Daria Chernova and Maria Malanina occupied the no.15 seeded position.
“We were fine playing towards Maria the defensive player but Daria counter attacked very strongly; she blocked very fast and that caused us a great deal of trouble”, explained Minnie Soo Wai Yam. “So after the second game, whoever played towards Daria, pushed the ball very hard with as much backspin as possible, the ball came back with only little backspin, so we could attack very fast.”
Success for the fourth seeds, there was also success in the second round of the Girls’ Doubles event for the top three pairings and in a more comfortable manner.
China’s Chen Xingtong and Liu Gaoyang, the top seeds, beat Korea’s Kim Jiho and Lee Yujin (11-7, 11-4, 11-4); whilst Japan’s Miu Hirano and Mima Ito, the no.2 seeds, accounted for Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and Melanie Diaz (11-7, 11-4, 11-4).
Not to be outdone, Miyu Maeda and Hitomi Sato, also from Japan and the no.3 seeds, ended the hopes of France. They beat Pauline Chasselin and Laura Pfefer in three straight games (11-9, 11-7, 11-6).
Second round success for the top four seeds in the second round of the Girls’ Doubles event; it was not to be the situation in the counterpart round of the Junior Boys’ Doubles event.
Korea’s Cho Seungmin and Kim Minhyeok, the no.3 seeds, survived as did China’s Lyu Xiang and Xue Fei, the no.4 seeds. However, there were surprise defeats for latter’s colleagues, Liang Jingkun and Yu Ziyang, the top seeds, as there was for Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and Jung Ka Tak, the no.2 seeds.
In both instances it was pairings from Chinese Taipei who caused the upsets.
Liang Jingkun and Yu Ziyang suffered defeat at the hands of Peng Wang-Wei and Wang Tai-Wei (15-13, 11-8, 11-6); Lin Hsueh-Yu and Yang Heng-Wei signalled the end of the road for Ho Kwan Kit and Hung Ka Tak (11-13, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6).
Defeats for the top two seeds but it was not to be the scenario for the next two in the pecking order.
Korea’s Cho Seungmin and Kim Minhyeok accounted for Germany’s Kilian Ort and Qiu Dang (7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-6), Lyu Xiang and Xue Fei ended the aspirations of Lee Jangmok and Park Gangyeon (11-5, 11-1, 11-4).
In all doubles events the quarter and semi-final rounds will be played on Saturday 6th December.
Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall
Photo By: Rémy Gros
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