by Ian Marshall
The no.19 seeds, at the final hurdle they beat China’s Xiang Peng and Kuai Man, the no.29 seeds, in a full distance five games encounter (10-12, 11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 11-7).
Success for Miyuu Kihara and to some extent revenge.
Earlier in the evening partnering colleague, Haruna Ojio and occupying the no.11 seeded position, the duo had experienced a semi-final girls’ doubles defeat at the hands of Kuai Man and her Chinese compatriot, Wu Yangchen, the no.13 seeds (11-6, 3-11, 11-7, 12-10).
Awaiting in the final is the United States pairing of Rachel Sung and Amy Wang, the no.10 seeds; the penultimate round winners in opposition to Chinese Taipei’s Cai Fong-En and Hsu Yi-Chen (11-6, 8-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5).
Meet again
Notably, Rachel Sung and Kuai Man meet in the girls’ singles quarter-finals, following second round successes.
Rachel Sung, the no.21 seed, beat Cai Fong-En, the no.28 seed (11-5, 11-6, 11-4, 11-4); Kuai Man, the no.27 seed, ousted India’s Swastika Ghosh, the no.4 seed (11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4).
In the same half of the draw, Haruna Ojio meets Germany’s Sophia Klee; in the opposite half it is Miyuu Kihara versus Croatia’s Ioanna Singeorzan, Russia’s Elizabet Abraamian against Wu Yangchen,
Surprise quarter-finalists
Notably of the top 11 names, only Elizabet Abraamian, the no.2 seed, advanced to the last eight.
Haruna Ojio, the no.23 seed, continued to upset the order of merit by recording a second round win against Darya Kisel of Belarus, the no.9 seed (11-2, 11-1, 11-9, 11-8); similarly, Sophia Klee, the no.16 seed, ended the hopes of Turkey’s Ece Harac, the no.6 seed (12-10, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 5-11, 11-7).
“I’m unbelievably happy! It was a really tough match, and now I’m in the quarter-finals of the ITTF World Youth Championships. The match was really hard, she is also a good player, so I knew it would be a really hard match. I was so nervous all the time, I had to fight for every point, but in the end I’m happy I could keep my head clean and just win!” Sophia Klee
Similarly, Miyuu Kihara, the no.17 seed, ousted Amy Wang, the no.19 seed (11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9), Ioanna Singeorzan, the no.12 seed, accounted for India’s Diya Parag Chitale, the no.7 seed (7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 13-11, 11-9). Not to be overshadowed Wu Yangchen, the no.25 seed, doused the aspirations of Portugal’s Ines Matos, the no.26 seed (11-3, 11-5, 12-10, 11-8).
Names down the order make reservations
Meanwhile, in boys’ singles event, Romania’s Darius Movileanu, the no.2 seed, India’s Payas Jain, the no.3 seed and Croatia’s Ivor Ban, the no.4 seed, booked last eight places; however, the remaining reservations were made by names lower down the order.
Xiang Peng, the no.29 seed, caused arguably the biggest upsets in terms of status by overcoming Germany’s Kay Stumper, the top seed (11-9, 14-12, 11-7, 11-4), Russia’s Vladimir Sidorenko, the no.10 seed, ousted Belgium’s Adrien Rassenfosse, the no.6 seed (11-7, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8).
Likewise, Iran’s Navid Shams, the no.9 seed, upset matters by beating Romania’s Eduard Ionescu, the no.7 seed (9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9), China’s Zeng Beixun, the no.31 seed, overcame Norway’s Borgar Haug, the no.5 seed (11-7, 11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6).
In a similar manner Poland’s Samuel Kulczycki, the no.15 seed, halted the aspirations of Russia’s Maksim Grebnev, the no.18 seed (11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-9).
At the quarter-final stage in the top half of the draw Xiang Peng faces Vladimir Sidorenko, Payas Jain opposes Navid Shams; in the lower half Ivor Ban confronts Zheng Beixun, Darius Movileanu meets Samuel Kulczycki.
Finalists decided
Progress for Darius Movileanu but not in the boys’ doubles; partnering Eduard Ionescu, the no.2 seeds, they experienced a semi-final defeat at the hands of the combination formed by Hungary’s Csaba Andras and Croatia’s Ivor Ban, the no.4 seeds (11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7).
In the final they meets Maksim Grebnev and Vladimir Sidorenko, the no.9 seeds, the penultimate round winners against the combination of Peru’s Carlos Fernandez and Nigeria’s Taiwo Matti, the no.14 seeds (11-3, 10-12, 11-9, 14-12).
The quarter-finals of the boys’ singles and girls’ singles events in addition to the finals of the boys’ doubles and girls’ doubles will be played on Tuesday 7th December.
