by Ian Marshall, Editor
At the quarter-final stage, the no.3 seeds, they accounted for China’s Chen Ke and Wang Yidi, the no.7 seeds (11-9, 9-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-6), prior to securing their place in the final courtesy of success in opposition to colleagues, Hina Hayata and Miu Hirano, the no.2 seeds (7-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3).
Impressively, Hina Hayata and Mima Ito had beaten the host nation’s Kalina Hristova and Ivet Lieva, the no.8 seeds (11-6, 11-1, 12-10) to reserve their place in the penultimate round.
Success for a highly seeded pair; in the opposite half of the draw it was very much the antithesis. Qualifiers, the Chinese pairing of Liu Gaoyang and Zhang Rui duly advanced.
They accounted for fellow qualifiers Germany’s Nina Mittelham and Sabine Winter (11-3, 11-13, 11-6, 12-10) prior to ousting Japan’s Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato, the top seeds and winners earlier this year at ITTF Challenge Series tournaments in both Croatia and Spain, to reserve their place in the final.
Most impressively, Liu Gaoyang and Zhang Rui, comfortable against the defensive art, emerged successful in three straight games (11-9, 11-7, 11-7). In the round of the last eight, Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato had ended the progress of Poland’s Katarzyna Grzybowska- Franc and Natalia Partyka (9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8).
The final is scheduled to commence at 1.00 pm (local time) on Sunday 12th August.
