The host association suffered agonies on the opening day of play, Wednesday 7th August 2013, at the Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open; it was not the best of starts.

In the Junior Boys' Team event the first team outfit comprising Lam Siu Hung, Li Hon Ming and Daryl Hung suffered defeats in both contests and thus did not qualify for the quarter-finals.

Occupying the second seeded position in the draw, they were beaten by the Chinese trio of Yu Ziyang, Lu Xiang and Fang Yinchi by three matches to nil, before experiencing a three-one reverse against the Chinese Taipei 'B' Team trio of Wang Tai-Wei, Chang Chia-Chun and Shen Sun-Chang.

Closer Than Score-Line Suggests

 A three matches to one defeat but arguably the contest was much closer than the score-line might suggest; only one of the four matches did not go the full five games distance and that was the one won by Hong Kong.

In the opening match of the fixture, Li Hon Ming beat Chang Chia-Chun in three straight games (11-9, 11-2, 11-6) but that was the only success for the hosts as Wang Tai-Wei engineered a Chinese Taipei victory. 

He beat Lam Siu Hang (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8) and Li Hon Ming (16-14, 9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 15-13); whilst, sandwiched in between, Shen Sun-Chang overcame Daryl Hung by the very narrowest of margins (13-11, 7-11, 11-7, 3-11, 12-10).

First Place for China
Chinese Taipei 'B' duly finished in second place in the group; in a similar manner to Hong Kong, they experienced a three-nil defeat against China.

First Place Secured
No place in the last eight for the second seeds; however, that was not the situation for the other highly seeded teams.

Japan 'A', the top seeds, represented by Naoki Matsuda, Tonin Ryuzaki and Masahiro Otsuka duly finished in first place in their group as did the third seeded Chinese Taipei 'A' outfit formed by Wen Wei-Chieh, Yang Heng-Wei and Kwong Kai-Hin. 

Similarly, it was first place in the group for the Japan 'B' Team formed by Tomo Miyazaki, Masato Kakitsuka and Ryotaro Ogata.

Moments of Drama
However, top place was not gained without some moments of anguish; there was were no great dramas for Japan 'B' but Japan 'A' and Chinese Taipei `A' were both stretched to the limit.

Japan 'A' needed the full five matches to beat Hong Kong 'C' as did Chinese Taipei 'A' in opposition to Brazil.

The player to cause Japan 'C' problems was Hung Ka Tak; he beat both Masahiro Otsuka (12-10, 8-11, 11-4, 1-11, 11-7) and Tonin Ryuzaki (9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3). 

However, that was the sum total of success for the hosts. Hung Wah Tak was beaten by both Tonin Ryuzaki (12-10, 11-4, 14-12) and by Masahiro Otsuka (11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 11-8); whilst Tang Chi Hin suffered defeat at the hands of Naoki Matsuda in the third match of the contest (11-6, 11-3, 11-7).

Yang Heng-Wei the Guiding Hand
A close call for the top seeds, it was a close call for the third seeds with Yang Heng-Wei the player to guide Chinese Taipei to victory against Brazil.

He beat both Vitor Ishiy (5-11, 8-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-6) and Luan Oliveira (11-13, 11-8, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6), with the one further Chinese Taipei success being achieved by Lin Hsueh-Yu; in the third match of the duel, he beat Isaac Zauli (11-8, 11-6, 11-6).

The wins for Brazil both came at the expense of Wen Wei-Chieh; he was beaten by Luan Oliveira (11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9) and by Vitor Ishiy (11-8, 11-7, 11-8).

Top Three Unscathed
A surprise and close calls in the first stage of the Junior Boys' Team event but that was not the situation in the opening phase of the Cadet Boys' Team competition where the top team all emerged unscathed.

Chinese Taipei 'A', the top seeds represented by Huang Chien-Tu, Yu Cheng-Feng and Lin Yun-Ju fished in first place in their group with a degree of comfort as did the second seeded Sweden 'A' Team comprising Adam Blomqvist and Omid Khoshbakht.

Not to be outdone, in an event where there were three groups in the first phase of proceedings, as opposed to four in the Junior Boys' Team event, Chinese Taipei, the third seeds, selecting from the trio of Chen Chun-Hsiang, Chi Huang-Yang and Tang Cheng-Yen, duly finished in first place in their group.

Finals
The finals of all team events will be played on Thursday 8th August 2013.

Live on YouTube and Exciting on FlickR
The final session of play at the Nikon Hong Junior and Cadet Open will be streamed live on YouTube between 2.00pm and 5.30pm local time. Also visit the FlickR Gallery for photographs of the event. 

Nikon Hong Junior and Cadet Open: The Final Session of Play 
Nikon Hong Junior and Cadet Open: Photo Gallery on FlickR 

Article By: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo By: Raymond Lam