by Simon Daish
Eliminating top seed Kasumi Ishikawa in the previous round Lee Eunhye produced another remarkable performance in the Round of 16, defeating China’s Chen Ke in six games (10-12, 12-10, 19-17, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7) to extend her stay in the competition.
Awaiting the unseeded Korean player in the last eight is fifth seed Mima Ito following her triumphant outing against local favourite Lee Ho Ching (5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7), but she won’t be joined in the next stage of the event by fellow Japanese representative Miu Hirano who fell at the hands of Zhang Rui (11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-13, 12-10).
Achieving success against the fourth seeded player was an impressive feat indeed for Zhang Rui, however, she was arguably trumped by another Chinese qualifier with He Zhuojia pulling off a fine four games to one victory over second seed Feng Tianwei (11-2, 6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-5) at the foot of the draw.
The shock results weren’t restricted to just the Women’s Singles tournament; over in the Men’s Singles category Sweden’s Jon Persson broke the hearts of the Hong Kong fans by knocking out top seed Wong Chun Ting in stunning fashion (6-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10). In the process, Persson has set up a last eight meeting with unseeded Chinese competitor Zhou Qihao following his terrific win against No.11 seed Patrick Franziska (12-10, 13-15, 11-9, 11-8, 12-10).
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna and Portugal’s Marcos Freitas were involved in an exciting head-to-head showdown which went in the favour of the latter player (13-11, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11, 10-12, 11-6) while the Korean trio of Cho Seungmin, Lim Jonghoon and Lee Sangsu also progressed.
There was some news for the local fans to appreciate with Ho Kwan Kit and partner Wong Chun Ting sealing their place in the Men’s Doubles final thanks to a five games win against second seeds Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura (11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7). The Hong Kong duo will take on another Japanese pairing in the title match with Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima beating Patrick Franziska and Jonathan Groth (13-11, 13-11, 6-11, 11-4) in the other penultimate round tie.
China will take home the Women’s Doubles gold medal after both semi-finals went in the country’s favour: Chen Xingtong and Sun Yingsha weren’t fazed by their top seeded opponents as Japan’s Hina Hayata and Mima Ito fell to a four games defeat (11-4, 2-11, 11-7, 12-10) while Chen Ke and Wang Manyu held the edge over Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem and Lee Ho Ching (14-12, 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-7).
