Guan Mengyuan and Ng Wing Nam caused the biggest upset as matters progressed in the second round of the Women’s Doubles event at the LIEBHERR World Championships in Paris on the afternoon of Thursday 16^th May 2013.

They overcame Romania’s Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara, the reigning European champions.

It was a very mature performance by the Hong Kong duo, who are to step into shoes vacated by the likes of Zhang Rui, Lin Ling and Lau Sui Fei.

Furthermore, the career of Tie Yana, who is currently expecting her first child and is not on duty in Paris, is in doubt; for the past decade the automatic Hong Kong selection has been from those four player.

Now the next decade sees an exciting new group, all products of the Hong Kong coaching scheme, appearing on the scene.

Furthermore, those who have been major players for the Special Administrative Region of China are now playing their part in the nurturing of the new generation.

Notably, Li Ching who won the silver medal in the Men’s Doubles event with Ko Lai Chak at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 was sitting courtside as coach.

If it’s doubles an Olympic silver medallist is not a bad choice!

He guided 20 year old Ng Wing Nam and 21 year old Guan Mengyuan through a crisis.

Impressively, Guan Mengyuan and Ng Wing Nam won the first three games, Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara responded to take the next three; in the decisive seventh game, at the change of ends the Hong Kong duo led 5-3, they extended the lead to 7-3 and never let go of the advantage.

Eventually, with Li Ching’s heart beating slightly slower; Guan Mengyuan and Ng Wing Nam secured a seven games success (11-7, 14-12, 11-8, 8-11, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6).

 “In the first three games we were active, we were positive”, said Ng Wing Nam. “In the fourth, fifth and sixth games we became passive; in the seventh game it was a case of trying to forget about the result and concentrate on playing one point at a time.”

Defeat for the European champions and the fourth seeds, Singapore’s Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu came perilously close to disaster.

They had to perform the recovery of the round; they trailed the Ukrainian defensive duo of Tetyana Bilenko and Ganna Gapanova by three games to two before playing with the utmost caution to secure victory in seven games (5-11, 10-12, 11-8, 7-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-4).

Eventual success for the fourth seeds in the second round of the Women’s Singles event; it was more comfortable progress for the top three seeds, all from China.

Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia, the top seeds and defending champions, beat Korea’s Park Seonghye and Seok Hajung (11-7, 11-4, 11-7, 11-5), Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen, the second seeds, overcame Hungary’s Petra Lovas and Szandra Pergel (11-6, 11-4, 19-17, 11-9); whilst Chen Meng and Zhu Yuling, the third seeds, ended the hopes of Germany’s Zhenqi Barthel and Irene Ivancan.

Article By: ITTF - Ian Marshall

 Video interview - Guan Mengyuan and Ng Wing Nan