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Japan’s Koki Niwa and Sayaka Hirano were in perfect unison on the morning of Thursday 4th July 2013 at the Asian Championships in the Korean coastal city of Busan.
Occupying the sixth seeded position in the draw, they caused a major upset in the quarter-finals of the Mixed Doubles event.
They overcame the second seeded partnership of Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and Huang Yi-Hua in three straight games (11-7, 11-9, 11-3).
The win recorded by the Japanese partnership was one of two upsets in the round of the last eight in the Mixed Doubles event; however, the other could hardly be described as unexpected.
Silver medallists at the recent LIEBHERR World Championships in Paris, the host nation’s Lee Sangsu and Park Youngsook, listed in Busan as the no.20 seeded pair, ended the hopes of Hong Kong’s Jiang Tianyi and Lee Ho Ching, the no.7 seeds. They won in three straight games (11-5, 11-8, 11-9).
Two upsets but in the two remaining Mixed Doubles quarter-final matches, the result was as seeding predicted.
China’s Yan An and Zhu Yuling, the no.1 seeds, beat Singapore’s Gao Ning and Yu Mengyu, the no.5 seeds (8-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-3); whilst colleagues, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, the no.3 seeds, ended the aspirations of Thailand’s Chaisit Chaitat and Nanthana Komwong (11-8, 11-6, 11-9).
At the semi-final stage, Yan An and Zhu Yuling meet Lee Sangsu and Park Youngsook, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng oppose Koki Niwa and Sayaka Hirano.
Matters through to the semi-final stage in the Mixed Doubles event; in the Men’s Doubles competition, on the fifth day of play in Busan, proceedings reached third round, the round before the quarter-finals.
Furthermore, the top eight seeds all duly progressed untroubled.
China’s Ma Long and Xu Xin, the top seeds, accounted for India’s Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai (11-9, 11-3, 11-9); whilst also in the top quarter of the draw there was success for the host nation, Jung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu, the no.6 seeds.
They overcame Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and Sun Chia-Hong (11-5, 11-4, 11-7).
Success for China and Korea, in the second quarter of the draw there were wins for Hong Kong and Japan.
Jiang Tianyi and Wong Chun Ting, the no.8 seeds, accounted for Kazakhstan’s Samat Beisenov and Timur Kelbuganov (11-5, 11-5, 11-9) to bring smiles to the faces of Hong Kong supporters.
Meanwhile, Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa flew the flag for Japan. They defeated Sri Lanka’s Rohan Sirisena and Milinda Lakshitha (11-6, 11-3, 11-4).
Similarly in the lower half of the draw, there were comfortable wins for the highly seeded combinations.
Singapore’s Gao Ning and Yang Zi, the no.4 seeds, beat Kyrgyzstan’s Alisher Lakupbaev and Rusian Lultaev (11-3, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7); Hong Kong’s Cheung Yuk and Leung Chu Yan,the no.7 seeds, defeated Thailand’s Suchat Pitakgulsiri and Padasak Tanviriyavechakul (12-14, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6), whilst Japan’s Kazuhiro Chan and Kenji Matsudaira, the no.5 seeds, overcame Nepal’s Shiva Dundar Gothe and Deep Saun (11-13, 11-5, 11-1, 11-1).
Not to be outdone; China’s Yan An and Zhou Yu beat Chinese Taipei’s Yeh Chih-Wei and Yang Heng-Wei (11-6, 11-5, 11-7).
Play in both the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles events continues on Friday 5th July.
Article By: ITTF - Ian Marshall
Photo By: Ireneusz Kanabrodzki
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