Hong Kong-Taipei pairs in mixed doubles final

Mumbai, September 14, 2014: The fighting qualities of Hong Kong’s pair apart, percentage play also came to the fore in the Junior Mixed Doubles event of the Reliance 20th Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships at the Sardar Patel Stadium here today.

Understandably, Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and Doo Hoi Kem, who combined well with her partner, won their semifinal encounter 3-0 against Chinese Taipei’s Liao Cheng-Tiang and Huang Yu-Chiao without much ado. The duo will now take on in the final another pair from Chinese Taipei’s Sun Chia-Hung and Chiu Ssu-Hua, which defeated North Koreans Kim Ok Chan and Kim Jinju 3-1 in the other semifinals.  The final will be played tomorrow.

However, as compared to their quarterfinal outing against the Korean pair of Kim Minhyeok and Lee Seul, the semifinal against Taipei failed to measure up both in intensity as well as attraction. Maybe, after their hard-fought win against the Koreans, the Hong Kong pair was more ease with itself, combining so well to outthought and outwit both Liao Cheng-Tiang andHuang Yu-Chiao.

But in the breathtaking quarterfinals earlier, Korea’s Kim Minhyeok and Lee Seul were leading comfortably with a 2-0 score. But Ho and Doo re-wrote the script, taking the match down to the wire to 3-2. This mixed doubles saw excellent fight, with none of the pairs conceding an inch. Matching stroke for stroke, Kim and Lee pushed the Hong Kong duo on the back foot and won by the minimal points. In the decider, too, they did exceedingly well to keep things under control and the tie went into deuce before Hong Kong’s Ho and Doo wrapped it up in style at 14-12.

In the other quarterfinals, the Chinese pair of Zhou Qihao and Chen Ke failed to match and sustain the pace of Taipei’s duo of Liao Cheng-Ting and Huang Yu-Chiao and went down in straight gains of 11-8, 11-4, 11-9.

Ayhika shines

The first stage group matches in both the Junior Boys and Junior Girls singles got underway with 16 and 14 groups, respectively. With one player from each group advancing to the next stage, the main draw, things will get tougher from tomorrow.

From the Indian point of view, Ayhika Mukherjee won both her group matches against Sri Lankan Ruvini Kannangara 3-1 and North Korean Ri Yong Hae 3-0. She, however, has to play South Korean Lee Seul tomorrow in the third round to know her fate of making it to the main draw.

Sagarika Mukherjee and Riti Shankar have won a match each but it will be tough for them to win their next matches against fancied opponents from China and Japan. Otherwise, it was curtains for Sreeja and Oishwarya Deb who lost their first matches and face bigger tests in round 2.

Results:

Junior Mixed Doubles: Semifinals: Ho Kwan Kit/Doo Hoi Kem (HKG) bt Liao Cheng-Tiang/Huang Yu-Chiao (TPE) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 12-10) Sun Chia-Hung/Chiu Ssu-Hua (TPE) bt Kim Ok Chan/Kim Jinju (PRK) 3-1 (11-5, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8); Quarterfinals: Kim Ok Chan/Kim Jinju (PRK) bt Supanut W/Orawan Paranang (THA) 3-1 (5-11,  11-4, 12-10, 11-6), Sun China-Hung/Chiu Ssu-Hua (TPE) bt Cho Seungmin/Lee Zion (KOR) 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 4-11, 12-10), Liao-Cheng-Ting/Huang Yu-Chiao (TPE) bt Zhou Qihao/Chen Ke (CHN) 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-9), Ho Kwan Kit/Doo Hoi Kem  (HKG) bt Kim Minhyeok/Lee Seul (KOR) 3-2 (11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 14-12).

A TTFI Press release