by Henry Chen

Liu Shiwen was beaten by Chen Xingtong, semi-finalist in the Girls’ Singles event at the 2015 World Junior Championships, in a full distance five games encounter (11-9, 4-11, 6-11, 11-6, 7-3); the defeat coming after Feng Yalan had given Anxin the lead by overcoming Wen Jia (13-11, 11-7, 11-5).

Matters level, Liu Guoyang and Feng Yalan beat Chen Xingtong and Lan Xi in the doubles contest (14-12, 12-10) to regain the lead for Anxin; before, by the very narrowest of margins, Liu Shiwen accounted for Wen Jia (13-11, 7-11, 9-11, 12-10, 14-12).

“Thanks for my coach and teammates. They helped a lot for the victory. I did not play well today. I did not concentrate on the match enough. In the last phase of the match, I did not have too many ways to win; just had to play point by point! Hope I can play better in the final”, Liu Shiwen

Mixed fortunes for one player who is surely in line for a place in the Chinese Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games; for another, it was two wins without any moments of great drama.

Zhu Yuling beat both Sun Mingyang (12-10, 14-12, 8-11, 11-8) and Mu Zi (11-5, 11-2, 6-11, 11-8) to prove the mainstay of victory for Shandong Luneng in opposition to Bayi.

“I think I play normally today. My opponents also played quite well. Actually, the other teams did much research on me, so definitely I felt a little bit of pressure. However, this is something that you should get used to, because it’s a good thing that people do research on me. Under this situation, if you can still win, you have proved yourself”, Zhu Yuling

Impressively, the one further win for Shandong Luneng was secured in the doubles when Gu Yuting and Li Xiaodan combined to beat Liu Xin and Sun Mingyang (11-5, 16-14); the win came after Mu Zi had overcome Gu Yuting to secure the one win for Bayi.

The final will be played on Saturday 31st December.

Thursday 29th December: Super League Semi-Finals

Thursday 29th December: Final Super League Results

Thursday 29th December: Final Super League Team Positions

Thursday 29th December: Final Super League Averages