|
Totally focused on the task in hand, Lee Ho Ching remained in control of her emotions to cause the one upset of note on the opening day of play, Thursday 28th March 2013, in the Women’s event at the Times Property World Team Classic in Guangzhou.
She beat Park Youngsook in five games (7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 11-5) to secure victory for Hong Kong over Korea, the third seeds.
Lee Ho Ching was the heroine; Jiang Huajun was the mainstay of victory.
In a most impressive manner, Jiang Huajun accounted for Seok Hajung in the opening match of the fixture (13-11, 11-7, 11-8), before in the third match, partnering Tie Yana to victory over Park Youngsook and Yang Haeun (7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5).
Wins for Korea
The wins for Korea came in the second match of the fixture with Yang Haeun beating Lee Ho Ching and in the fourth match of the contest, when Seok Hajung secured victory in a nail-biting contest against Tie Yana (8-11, 11-13, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9).
Otherwise matters went according to seeding
In Command
China completed their series of first round matches in the most commanding manner possible; a contest that underlined the gap between China the rest of humanity.
Fielding the trio of Liu Shiwen, Wu Yang and Ding Ning they recorded a three-nil win over the Netherlands, the country that has dominated the Women’s Team event at the European Championships in recent years.
Same Situation for China
Accepted there was only Li Jiao of the recent first team selection on duty for the Netherlands. Li Jie was not present and Elena Timina was allotted the role of being the coach but the same argument could be directed towards China.
Only Ding Ning of the London Olympic winning trio was on duty and therein lay yet another reason for Chinese success; the production line seems never ending. There is no period of transition.
Not So Comfortable
A comfortable win for China, the top seeds but not quite so comfortable for Singapore, the second seeds, nor for Japan, the fourth seeds; both recorded three-one victories.
Singapore overcame Poland, whilst Japan defeated Germany.
Feng Tianwei
Mainstay of the Singapore success was Feng Tianwei; she beat both Magdalena Szczerkowska (14-15, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5) and Katarzyna Grzybowska (11-8, 11-6, 11-5) with the one remaining win coming from Yu Mengyu over Natalia Partyka (12-14, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8).
The one success for Poland came in the doubles with Katarzyna Grzybowska and Magdalena Szczerkowska beating Isabelle Siyun Li and Yu Mengyu (10-12, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7).
United Effort
Meanwhile, for Japan it was very much a team effort in their win over Germany.
Ai Fukuhara suffered defeat in her opening match against Kristin Silbereisen (8-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5) before Kasumi Ishikawa turned the tables. She beat Wu Jiaduo (11-7, 11-9, 11-2) before partnering Sayaka Hirano to success over Petrissa Solja and Kristin Silbereisen (11-9, 11-8, 11-7).
The fixture concluded with Ai Fukuhara accounting for Petrissa Solja; she won in four games (11-9, 14-16, 11-8, 11-5).
Team of the Day
Success as seeding predicted but not in the case of Hong Kong; they emerged as the team of the day.
Article by: ITTF - Ian Marshall
Photo by: Magdy El-Doukrary
|
)
