World number two Shiwen Liu of China in acton during her quarter-final match against Austria’s Amelie Solja at the Qatar Open 2013 Table Tennis Championships at the Qatar Women’s Sports Committee Hall at Aspire Zone yesterday.
BY DENZIL PINTO
DOHA: China underlined its dominance once again when the Asian country secured all the semi-final places in the Men’s and Women’s Singles categories at the Qatar Open 2013 Table Tennis Championships yesterday.
In the Men’s category, Xin Xu, Ma Long, Wang Ho and Yan An advanced to the last four, while the women’s world top three players Ning Ding, Shiwen Liu and Xiaoxia Li joined Zhu Yuling in today’s semi-finals.
Defending champion and world number one Xin Xu posted a 4-0 win over China Taipese’s Yuan-Chih Chuang.
The two-time champion fought off the challenge from the 31-year-old to win 11-9, 11-9, 11-4, 12-10.
Xu will now meet compatriot and third seed Long in today’s semi-final, who defeated sixth seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany 4-1.
After losing the first three games, the German, who won bronze at the London Olympics, claimed the fourth but was unable to build on the momentum which allowed Long to walk away with a 11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7 victory.
In the third quarter-final, world number four Wang cruised past another German, Patrick Baum in straight games.
Wang, 29, was convincing and only conceded 21 points in his 11-8, 11-7, 11-1, 11-5 victory.
Wang will now clash against Yan An after second seed and Olympic champion Jike Zhang retired injured in the semi-finals.
Zhang was trailing 0-2 but was unable to continue his quarter-final match at the Qatar Women’s Committee Sports Hall.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s category, fifth seed Yuling battled past world number six and fourth seed Feng Tianwei in the quarter-finals. Yuling, who beat compatriot Xiaodan Li in the last- 16 stage, took a three game-lead.
However, after Tianwei won two consecutive games, Yuling had enough quality to claim a 4-2 victory (11-4, 13-11, 11-5, 7-11, 5-11, 11-4).
Yuling will now face world number two Liu, who ended the remarkable run of Austria’s Amelie Solja.
Liu cruised past the Austrian in four straight games (11-9, 11-6, 11-1, 11-6).
Earlier in the day, Solja had defeated 28th seed Zhendqi Barthel of Germany 4-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6) in the last-16 stage.
However, the 26th seed Austrian could not cope with Liu’s fast speed in the quarter-finals.
In the other semi-finals, Ding, who enjoyed an easy 4-0 victory over 15th seed Han Ying (11-8, 11-2, 11-3, 11-4) in the last-16 stage earlier, made it a double success against Korea’s Hauen Yang.
The world number one posted an 11-3, 11-7, 11-2, 11-7 victory, and will clash with third seed and world number three Li Xiaoxia.
After registering a 4-0 victory in the last- 16 stage, Li overcame Korea’s Hyow Seo in six games. The Olympic champion won 11-2, 9-11, 11-13, 11-2, 11-4, 11-5 in a highly entertaining encounter.
After claiming the first game, Li was 4-0 up in the second game, before Seo reduced the deficit to 5-6.
With the second game level at 9-9, Seo took advantage and clinched the game 11-9.
In a closely-contested third game, Seo who saved two game points, took the lead at 2-1.
Li remained composed and levelled the score at two games all.
Li then took the fifth game and later won the match clinching the last game 11-5.
As well as the semi-finals, the final of the Men’s and Women’s Singles will also take place today.
THE PENINSULA
