by Ian Marshall, Editor

However, progress was not without some moments of concern; especially for Shin Yubin, a player who earlier in the week had shone in the Girls’ Team competition.

In her opening contest she was stretched to the very limit by Hungary’s Fanni Harasztovich (10-12, 11-7, 7-11, 12-14, 19-17, 11-9, 11-9), before in an engagement that was also demanding, she overcame Brazil’s 13 year old Guilia Takahashi in six games (10-12, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7).

Similarly, for Jinnipa Sawettabut and Chau Wing Sze life was testing. Jinnipa Sawettabut needed six games to beat Slovakia’s Ema Labosova (10-12, 12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-9, 11-6), before rather more comfortably overcoming Australia’s Rebekah Stanley (11-4, 11-3, 11-7, 11-7). Likewise, in her one and only match of the day Chau Wing Sze faced a most worthy adversary; she accounted for Darya Kisel but like Chau Wing Sze needed six games (11-8, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6).

Exacting times, for Tsai Yu-Chin, life was less fraught; she recorded straight games wins against India’s Papti Sen (11-7, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9) and Canada’s Chen Yu-Hsuan (11-4, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6).

A successful day for the four principal names on first phase duty; for Italy’s Jamila Laurenti and China’s Huang Fanzhen, also the top names in their respective groups, it was a day without defeat as it was in a similar manner Japan’s Yumeno Soma, Croatia’s Andrea Pavlovic and Lucie Gauthier of France. All justified their status, although for Huang Fanzhen there were difficult times. She needed the full seven games to beat Crystal Wang of the United States (3-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 14-12, 11-8).

Matches in the group phase of the Girls’ Singles event conclude on Friday 7th December; the opening round will follow later in the day.