The No. 3 seeds, experienced a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Germany, the no.5 seeds; a contest in which Hong Kong, China appeared well on track to win.
Hong Kong established a two-nil lead. Soo Wai Yam Minnie prevailed against Han Ying (7-11, 11-1, 11-9, 16-14) to end the German’s hitherto unbeaten record before Zhu Chengzhu overcame Nina Mittelham (11-3, 11-5, 13-15, 11-5).
At the point of no return, Shan Xiaona accounted for Lee Ho Ching (13-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-5), to spark the recovery. Following suit, Han Ying proved too secure in defense for Zhu Chengzhu (11-6, 11-3, 11-8), before Nina Mittelham completed the recovery by beating Soo Wai Yam Minnie (9-11, 13-11, 11-5, 11-5).
“I was more than relieved, it was not an easy match; when I went on court, Ying told me I would win”, reflected Mittelham “The most emotional moment came after I won the match point against Minnie, all the team rushed on to the court; immediately I started crying because I was so relieved.”
Furthermore, for Germany, the win had a sweet taste; in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, they had experienced a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hong Kong, China, a fact that lingered painfully in the memory of Han.
“We are through to the semi-final, we are so amazingly happy; I was a little bit angry about the result at the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said Han. “So, when I saw the last 16 draws I knew we would have a second chance; it really helped me.”
At the semi-final stage, Germany now meets Japan, the no.2 seeds, the 3-0 quarter-final winners against Slovakia. “The German team has choppers, attackers, and many other types of players; we will do a lot of video analysis,” said Hina Hayata.
Singapore’s Zeng Jian proving the thorn in the Taipei side. She beat both Cheng I-Ching (11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8) and CHEN Szu-Yu (11-4, 9-11, 15-13, 11-5); the saving grace for Chinese Taipei was Li Yu-Jhun, in the crucial third match of the engagement, the 24-year-old overcame Wong Xin Ru (9-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-2).
“I lost the first two games, I was a little bit conservative, I told myself if I kept on playing like that, we would probably lose the whole match,” reflected Li. “I became relaxed and finally won the match.”
The women’s semi-finals will be played on Friday 7th October.
Meanwhile, in the men’s event, comprehensive wins were the order of the day the first round concluded.
Sweden and Portugal set the tone, each recording 3-0 wins. Sweden beat Belgium, and Portugal ended the hopes of Slovenia.
Same performances from China and Germany, with 3-0 victory margins against Croatia and India. “Generally, the players of team India are very aggressive, and they are very young”, said Ma Long. “We knew they had defeated team Germany in the round-robin, so before this match, we were fully prepared.”
Certainly, Ma Long was fully prepared, overcoming Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in straight games in the second match, each game more decisive than the previous (14-12, 11-5, 11-0).
At the quarter-final stage on Friday, China meets Sweden, Portugal opposes Japan; in the opposite half of the draw, it is the Republic of Korea versus Hong Kong, China, and Germany in opposition to France.
