By Neha Aggarwal
The thrill of the situation is that none of the matches will be played between players of the same country.
In the opening quarter-final match, Minnie Soo Wai Yam, the top seed beat Chinese Taipei’s Su Pei-Ling in a game that was well enjoyed by the crowd. The match was contested in six games, each game was a thriller to watch. There were a series of close to the table counter attacks by both the players who displayed a great show of table tennis. Minnie Soo Wai Yam won (9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9) to progress to the semi finals.
The next contest between Amy Wang and Andreea Dragoman was a full seven games thriller with the deciding game ending in favor of Dragoman. Although Wang had two advantages, she lead 11-10 and 12-11, but Dragoman held her nerves strong. She finished off the match with a thunderous topspin crosscourt, for which Amy had no response.
“I was very focused today because I badly wanted to win. It was very important for me because last year I finished third, so this year, I wanted to at least have the same result or better.”- Andreea Dragoman
The match between Japanese defender Kana Takeuchi and Chinese Taipei’s Fang Sih-Han was a classic game of modern attack versus the defence style of play. Although Kana stretched her limbs to get every ball possible back on the table,Fang Sih-Han’s smashes were too strong for the Japanese. Kana is ranked no.16 in the Under-18 January 2017, and Fang Sih-Han is ranked no.34. Undoubtedly, a great day for the attacker who always has a big smile on her face.
Seeded no.2 in the tournament and ranked no.20 in the girls’ singles in December 2016, Mak Tze Wing suffered a major defeat. She was beaten by Japan’s Yuko Kato in six games (12-10, 6-11, 14-12, 5-11, 11-8, 11-7). Yuko Kato, ranked no.21 in the January 2017 girls’ singles ranking, ended the year in the top spot in the girls’ singles standings. However, according to the December 2016 world raking, Mak Tze Wing occupied the second spot. Thus the contest was pretty close if rankings are considered. But today in Indore, Yuko Kato emerged victorious.
The 2016 ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals is slowly reaching its penultimate stage. Garb your seats and watch all the games LIVE on ITTF’s YouTube Channel.
Semi finals will be played on Saturday, 28th January 2017 from 9:30am IST onwards.
