By Neha Aggarwal
Will China dominate Mixed Doubles?
The mixed doubles event will commence in the evening with the round of 16 and post that, the the quarter-finals will be played. In the top half, apart from the top Japanese pair of Miu Hirano and Tomokazu Harimoto, strong pairs from Hong Kong, Korea Republic, Romania and France will be seen contesting. Also seen is the Chinese pair of Xu Haidong and Yuan Yuan who will be playing against the fourth seeds Tonin Ryuzaki and Miyu Kato from Japan on the round of 16.
In the bottom half, there are two Chinese pairs: Yu Heyi/ Liu Weishan and Xu Yingbin/ Sun Yizhen.
Thus there are three pairs from China and all of them are in different quarters and thus will not meet each other before semi finals. After China’s defeat in the team events, they will give in their best to not sacrifice any more medals.
The pair of Xu Yingbin/ Sun Yizhen has already shown their might beating Japan’s second seeded pair of Mima Ito/Yuto in round of 32. By the end of day six, four pairs will be determined who will play the medal winning matches on next day.
Singles knock out round of 64
The knock out stage in the boys and girls singles event will take place on day six. The first round which is the round of 64 will commence at 11:00am with boys’ singles and 3:15pm with girls’ singles. Japan’s Yuki Matsuyama, who lost to Kim Song II (PRK) in the qualification stage, has a tough road ahead.
He will be playing against China’s Yu Heyi and thus the Japan-China rivalry will be seen early in the fixture of the singles.
In the girls’ side, Miu Hirano will be seen in action as she is the top seed. Mima Ito captures the second seed, Hina Hayata is at third and Miyu Kato at fourth seed. The presence of a strong Japanese contingent is definitely a threat to the Chinese girls who will have to struggle more, but they will be focused and determined to snatch the medals from the rest of the world.
Lots of exciting matches wait all day on Monday 5th December, watch LIVE on ITTF.com/itTV
