Eventually, India’s Mouma Das overcame Singapore’s Isabelle Siyun Li in their second round clash in the Women’s Singles at the Asian Championships in the Korean city of Busan on the afternoon of Thursday 4th July 2013.

Mouma Das succeeded in a contest that went the full distance with the minimal two point margin deciding matters in the seventh game (11-6, 11-5, 13-11, 7-11, 17-19, 9-11, 11-9).

The fact the contest went the full seven games made it stand out from the other duels; the fact it lasted well over an hour, some 75 minutes made it stand out even more.

It was confrontation of long hard fought points as Mouma Das strained every bone in her body to penetrate the defensive artistry of Isabelle Siyun Li.

Furthermore, quite incredibly the contest never reached the stage that necessitated the Expedite Rule being introduced; the rule comes into force when a game has lasted 10 minutes.

One of the major reasons for the rule not being necessary is that when the total number of points in a game has reached 18, the rule cannot be enforced; thus when the score in a match has reached 9-9 or 10-8 the rule does not apply.

One wondered if the fifth game (17-15) was ever going to end!

In fact you could have had a leisurely lunch, returned and the game would not have finished!

 “I won the first three games but then in the fourth she made changes to her play and I made mistakes on the backhand”, reflected Mouma Das. “I was feeling tired; in the seventh game I tried to finish the point quickly, a top spin followed by a forehand smash but that was difficult because of the heavy backspin on the ball.”

On the whole, long extended rallies were the order of the day in an exacting battle.

“Often I played a forehand top spin and then followed with a push”, added Mouma Das. “My coach, Bhvarni Mukherjee told me to try to keep attacking; I tried to really focus on being able to top spin and attack.”

The seven games success recorded by Mouma Das was one of three close contests in the second round of the Women’s Singles event.

Both in the lower half of the draw, the two other duels in question saw Sri Lanka’s Pavani Sirisena beat Mongolia’s Delgemaa Mergen (11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8) and the host nation’s Yang Haeun account for Thailand’s Anisara Muangsuk (11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-4).

Close matches but not for the leading names; the top eight seeds all progressed with ease.

In the top half of the draw, China’s Ding Ning, Guo Yue and Zhu Yuling all enjoyed success as did Japan’s Ai Fukuhara.

Ding Ning, the no.1 seed, accounted for Kazakhstan’s Yuliya Gats (11-2, 11-3, 11-2, 11-3); Guo Yue, the no.7 seed, overcame Malaysia’s Ting Hie Phin (11-5, 11-3, 11-2, 11-4).

In a similar vein, Zhu Yuling, the no.4 seed, defeated Malaysia’s Ng Sock Khim (11-9, 11-6, 11-9, 11-3) and Ai Fukuhara, the no.8 seed, ended the hopes of Uzbekistan’s Rimma Gufranova (11-6, 11-1, 11-6, 11-4).

Meanwhile, in the lower half of the draw it was the same scenario with China’s Liu Shiwen and Chen Meng alongside Singapore’s Feng Tianwei and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa emerging successful.

Liu Shiwen the no.2 seed, overcame India’s Madhurika Patkar (11-5, 11-9, 11-3, 11-4); Chen Meng, the no.5 seed, withstood a spirited challenge from Japan’s Marina Matsuzawa (11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8).

Meanwhile, Feng Tianwei, the no.3 seed, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Liu Hsing-Yin (11-8, 11-7, 16-14, 6-11, 11-7) and Kasumi Ishikawa, the no.6 seed, held all the aces against Malaysia’s Beh Lee Wei (11-2, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7).

Play in the Women’s Singles event continues on Friday 5^th July.

Article By: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo By: Tony Wu