by Simon Daish

Huang Chien-Tu and Lin Yun-Ju had already shown previously that they have the potential to compete with the top-end of the field having beaten the No.5 seeds Yuto Kizukuri and Yuki Matsuyama in the Round of 16, but the Chinese Taipei pair have gone a step further on day seven of the World Junior Championships with their defeat of the third seeds Xu Haidong and Yu Heyi.

The match between the 11th seeds and the thirds seeds took place in the quarter-finals of the Boys’ Doubles competition in Cape Town, South Africa and while the Chinese Taipei pairing of Huang Chien-Tu and Lin Yun-Ju went into the tie with confidence their quarter-finals opponents Xu Haidong and Yu Heyi were still the expected combination to progress.

Xu Haidong and Yu Heyi claimed the early lead in the match with a positive performance in the opening game, but then all of a sudden Huang Chien-Tu and Lin Yun-Ju looked to be the sharper of the two pairings and with the following four games going to the Chinese Taipei duo another shock result had been achieved (6-11, 11-9, 16-14, 11-8, 11-8) and with it came the accomplishment of reaching the semi-finals.

Awaiting Huang Chien-Tu and Lin Yun-Ju in the last four is another opportunity to claim a major scalp, after second seeds An Jaehyun and Cho Seungmin of Korea Republic came through their quarter-finals tie against Romania’s Alexandru Manole and Cristian Pletea (12-10, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6) to set up a meeting with the Chinese Taipei players.

Day six of the Championships saw Romanian partnerships standout in the Boys’ Doubles event with successful results in the Round of 16, but the quarter-finals on day seven finally saw the country’s hopes of silverware in the category come to a halt after Dragos Florin Oprea and his partner Rares Sipos joined their fellow compatriots in exiting the competition with a 4-2 loss to French opposition Alexandre Cassin and Joe Seyfried (11-6, 12-10, 10-12, 11-3, 5-11, 18-16) in the top half of the draw.

Top seeds Tomokazu Harimoto and Tonin Ryuzaki will be the next opponents for Alexandre Cassin and Joey Seyfried, after the Japanese partnership saw off Hong Kong’s Kwan Man Ho and Ng Pak Nam in five ends (9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7) in their quarter-finals match.

Sun International 2016 World Junior Championships: Day Seven Quotes