by Simon Daish
Nina Mittelham hadn’t made the greatest of starts to group 1 having lost her opening match on day one, but the German contestant has managed to avoid an early exit from the event with a straight games success against Sweden’s Tilda Johansson on the second day of play in Stockholm.
All three of the games were won fairly convincingly by Mittelham as the host nation’s Johansson struggled to keep up with her opponent (11-5, 11-4, 11-6), and with Mittelham dropping fewer games than her two group rivals across the two days the German ensured her progress to the main draw.
However, while Mittelham was able to negotiate the qualifying group stage she alone will represent Germany in the last 16 after both Chantal Mantz and Wan Yuan were condemned to early exits with their second place finishes in groups 3 and 8 respectively.
Instead there will be two Belarusian players taking part in the main event following strong qualifying group performances from Alina Nikitchanka and Alina Arlouskaya who both managed to top their groups, ending Chantal Mantz and Wan Yuan’s dreams of making the next round in the process.
Nikitchanka’s victory over Germany’s Mantz (11-6, 11-7, 11-6) was enough to send the Belarus player through to the next round, and Arlouskaya was responsible for Wan’s elimination having edged her way over the line in seven ends against the German competitor (11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9).
Another tie that went right down to the wire took place in group 4 as Thailand’s Tamolwan Khetkhuan beat Dutch player Kim Vermaas in a winner takes all match; Khetkhuan made a positive start to the match by capturing the opening two ends, and despite Vermaas claiming two successive games of her own it was not enough as the Thai player Khetkhuan took the deciding fifth end by a three point margin to seal her spot beyond the qualifying groups (11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 5-11, 11-8).
The Under 21 Women’s Singles competition will resume on Thursday 17th November and by the end of the day’s action the event will be narrowed down to the final four contestants.
Latest Result
Wednesday 16th November: Under 21 Women’s Singles – Qualifying Group Stages
