by Simon Daish
Miu Hirano has made a strong start to the Women’s Singles event after registering a fantastic victory in the Round of 16.
Seeded 10th for the category, Miu Hirano faced a tough opening fixture against the no.4 seed Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Despite the 16-year-old Japanese player having fallen 0-2 behind early on in the tie, Hirano kept up the fight and managed to edge out Feng across seven games (6-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4).
Success for Miu Hirano, but for her fellow compatriot Mima Ito there was to be no place in the quarter-finals following her defeat at the hands of Han Ying (8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-2, 6-11, 11-5). Germany’s Ying gained revenge for her loss to Ito at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour German Open.
Han Ying was set to go head-to-head with Ding Ning in the last eight of the competition but Ding Ning – the top seed and defending Women’s Singles champion from China – withdrew from the event prior to the match due to illness.
Fresh from claiming his huge opening day upset victory over the fourth seed Jun Mizutani, Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik has put his name back in the spotlight once again with a superb comeback win against Chuang Chih-Yuan at the quarter-finals stage of the Men’s Singles draw.
Fifth seed Chuang Chih-Yuan started the day with a positive result against Japan’s Yuya Oshima in the Round of 16, and the Chinese Taipei player looked as though he had carried that momentum forward into the quarter-finals after he moved into a 0-2 lead. But a determined showing from Jeoung Youngsik saw the no.12 seed claim four successive ends (11-13, 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10, 11-1) to set up a meeting with the no.1 seed Ma Long in the penultimate round.
There were also shock outcomes outside of the Men’s and Women’s Singles tournaments as the two Doubles events and the Under 21 Men’s Singles category produced some interesting results.
Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and Tang Peng, seeded sixth, overcame the no.4 seeds Chuang Chih-Yuan and Huang Sheng-Sheng of Chinese Taipei in the Men’s Doubles quarter-finals (10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 11-7, 3-11, 7-11, 11-5). The Japanese duo of Yui Hamamoto and Hina Hayata knocked out the third seeds Maria Dolgikh and Polina Mikhailova of Russia (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7) in the Women’s Doubles.
No play was seen in the Under 21 Women’s Singles tournament, but the Under 21 Men’s Singles did feature as Ho Kwan Kit and Lim Jonghoon suffered shock defeats to Liao Cheng-Ting (4-11, 8-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 13-11, 11-9) and Can Akkuzu (7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10) respectively, in the last eight.
