by Simon Daish
Lin Chia-Hsuan and her partner Lin Po-Hsuan eliminated one of the host country’s pairings in the Round of 16 when they saw off the no.4 seeds Dora Madarasz and Szandra Pergel, and one round later another Hungarian combination exited to the Chinese Taipei duo with Bernadett Balint and Mercedes Nagyvaradi the victims.
The quarter-finals match was sitting all square after the opening two games with the scores level at one game apiece, but it was Lin Chia-Hsuan and Lin Po-Hsuan who vitally took the third end in deuce before the Chinese Taipei pair finished off the tie with the capture of the fourth game to move through to the semi-finals of the competition (11-6, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5).
Next up for Lin Chia-Hsuan and Lin Po-Hsuan is a tricky encounter with Sweden’s Matilda Ekholm and Hungary’s Georgina Pota, after they overcame Spain’s Galia Dvorak and Maria Xiao.
Matilda Ekholm and Georgina Pota, who are the second seeds for the category, were hardly troubled throughout the tie with all three games going in their favour (11-6, 11-7, 11-8), but Ekholm and Pota believe that there is still room for improvement in their play:
“We played well it was an important win for us to build on our self confidence for the next round. In some occasions we were a bit lucky too. We can still improve for the next round”, Georgina Pota.
China and Russia will contest the top half of the semi-finals draw; Chen Xingtong and Li Jiayi of China were involved in a difficult five games encounter which they eventually edged out against the Slovak Republic’s Barbora Balazova and the Czech Republic’s Hana Matelova (7-11. 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6), while a back injury problem for Chantal Mantz led to her and Wan Yuan withdrawing from the event putting the top seeds Maria Dolgikh and Polina Mikhailova through to the last four.
“We were challenged in this match, they’re left and right handed doubles players and they used it to their advantage really well. We had to adjust and in the last game we just trusted each other and focused really hard on our game”, was the reaction from the Chinese camp.
