(By Amy Karpinski, President of Cape Fear Table Tennis Club/Photo by . Press the Enter key to open the contact card.">Tony Murnahan)

Doubles Quarterfinals Cemented!

Mixed Doubles

Taipei’s powerful team of Cheng I-Ching/Lin Yun-Ju crushed Singapore’s team of Pang Yew En Koan/Lin Ye. Cheng/Lin defeated the young team from Singapore 3-0 and will face the tough Hong Kong team of Ho Kwan Kit/Lee Ho Ching who narrowly defeated Germany’s Patrick Franziska/Petrissa Solja in the fifth.

Maria Xiao/Alvaro Robles defeated the popular pair of Bernadette Scozs/Ovidiu Ionescu of Romania in four games. Xiao/Robles will have to play the match of their lives to be victorious tomorrow when they meet China’s Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha. Wang/Sun easily defeated their opponents Chen Chien-An/Chen Szu-Yu in four games.

The popular team of Tomokazu Harimoto/Hina Hayata from Japan defeated Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem/Wong Chun Ting 3-1. Harimoto/Hayata will face the Indian team of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Manika Batra who battled their way to a victory over the Ping Pong Diplomacy team of USA’s Kanak Jha and China’s Wang Manyu. This marks Jha’s departure from the doubles competition, but will play Germany’s chopper, Ruwen Filus, in singles action later today in his attempt to compete in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

The pairing of USA’s Lily Zhang and China’s Lin Gaoyuan continues to be successful. The pair’s complimentary playing styles proved too much for Russia’s Kirill Skachkov/Olga Vorobeva who were defeated decisively in four games. Zhang/Gaoyuan will compete in the quarters tomorrow against the tough French team of Jia Nan Yuan/Emmanuel Lebesson. The French pair crushed the hopes of India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta/Archana Girish Kamath with a dominating 3-0 finish.

Full results of the mixed doubles event can be found at this link: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=XDOUBLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346

Men’s Doubles

The battle lines for the quarterfinals were cemented today.

China’s Lin Gaoyuan/Liang Jingkun continued their dominance over the European teams defeating the solid French team of Emmanuel Lebesson/Alexandre Cassin 3 games to 1. Next up for the Gaoyuan/Jingkun pairing will be the hard-hitting German team of Benedikt Duda/Dang Qiu who made short work of defeating the surprising Belgium team of Florent Lambiet/Martin Allegro 3-1.

Korea’s young team of Cho Daeseong/An Jaehyun gave a scare to the top Swedish team of Kristian Karlsson/Mattias Falck. However, the experience and explosive power of the Swedes was too much for the Koreans to handle in the fifth. Karlsson and Falck will go on to compete against the daunting Chinese team of Wang Chuqin/Fan Zhendong who easily defeated the European pair of Spain’s Alvaro Robles and Romania’s Ovidiu Ionescu 3-1.

The Ho Kwan Kit/Wong Chun Ting team from Hong Kong had a scare with the lower rated Swedish team of Truls Moregard/Anton Kallberg. The Swedes ultimately succumbed to the consistent shot making of the Hong Kong team. Ho/Wang will meet the dominating Korean team of Jang Woojin/Lim Jonghoon who crushed the higher ranked team of Chen Chien-An/Chuang Chih-Yuan from Taipei in statement making fashion 3-0.

England’s powerhouse team of Paul Drinkhall/Liam Pitchford continued to plow through the competition defeating Poland’s upset maker Jaykub Dyjus who was paired with Belgium’s Cedric Nyutinck 3 games to none. Drinkhall/Pitchford will meet the Japanese powerhouse team of Shunsuke Togami/Yukiya Uda who defeated their fellow Japanese teammates Tomokazu Harimoto/Masataka Morizono in five games.

The action will be fierce in tomorrow’s men’s quarterfinals!

Full results of the men’s doubles event can be found here: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=MDOUBLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346

Women’s Doubles

As with the men’s, the women’s doubles quarterfinals were solidified today.

Korea’s Choi Hyojoo/Lee Zion crushed the lower rated Russian team of Elizabet Abraamian/Natalia Malinina 3 games to 0. The Koreans will face the Chinese pair of Qian Tianyi/Chen Meng who cruised to a 3-1 victory over the highly ranked team of Barbora Balazova/Hana Matelova.

The Romanian team of Andreea Dragoman/Elizabeta Samara battled their way to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Yana Noskova/Olga Vorobeva of Russia. The Romanian team will face their biggest test of the tournament tomorrow against the Japanese powerhouse team of Mima Ito/Hina Hayata. The quickness of the Japanese pair cruised to a 3-1 victory over the powerful team of Nina Mittelham/Sabine Winter from Germany.

The upset of the day for women’s doubles occurred when Luxemburg’s team of Sarah De Nutte/Xia Lian Ni out fought the much higher ranked team of Doo Hoi Kem and Lee Ho Ching of Hong Kong in a 3-2 battle. The victorious De Nutte/Xia team will have to prepare to face Archana Girish Kamath/Manika Batra – the hard-hitting team from India. Kamath/Batra cruised through to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 win over the Hungarian team of Dora Madarasz/Georgina Pota.

China’s Wang Manyu/Sun Yingsha cleared their way to another quarterfinal by defeating Germany’s Xiaona Shan/Petrissa Solja with a 3-1 finish. Wang/Sung will face their toughest competition against Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa/Miu Hirano. The lightening quick Japanese team made short work in their victory over Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut/Orawan Paranang 3-0.

For all of women’s doubles results, please click here: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=WDOUBLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346

Doubles quarterfinals action begin tomorrow, Saturday, November 27.

Photo can be found here

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