Hong Kong’s mixed doubles teams cruise to fourth round at table tennis World Championships
But Lee Ho-ching and Jiang Tianyi face a big test tomorrow against Steffen Mengel and Petrissa Solja of Germany
Hong Kong’s Lee Ho-ching only had a few hours’ sleep but that didn’t prevent her from winning her mixed doubles match at the World Championships in Suzhou this morning.
She and Jiang Tianyi – the pair are seeded second – had far too much talent for Welsh opponents Daniel O’Connell and Charlotte Carey, winning 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 in the third-round match.
Another Hong Kong pair, Wong Chun-ting and Doo Hoi-kem, also went through to the fourth round, beating Zsolt Peto and Gabriela Feher of Serbia 4-1 (12-10, 4-11,11-4,11-9,11-8).
“I played until very late last night and perhaps maybe mentally was still very tense and could not sleep well,” said Lee, who with Jiang won a silver medal at the Incheon Asian Games last year.
“The atmosphere of a big tournament always makes you feel a bit uneasy, but fortunately my game was not affected and in fact it was not a bad performance.
“After playing two matches yesterday, I am picking up my form steadily but it’s too early to say anything as there is a long way to go and I have to take it match by match.”
Coach Li Jing praised his charge, saying Lee is always hungry for success. “You can tell by the look in her eye, her body language that she wants to beat all her opponents. Today she showed her strong determination which gave the opponents a lot of trouble,” he said.
“Jiang still suffered lapse of concentration during rallies and he needs to work hard on this to improveme.”
The pair will face a real test tomorrow against Steffen Mengel and Petrissa Solja of Germany.
“Solja is the most fast-improving player from Europe with a singles world ranking of 22nd and we need to be at our best if we want to win,” said Li.
Hong Kong won bronze medals in the mixed doubles at the last two World Championships, but they face tough competition in Suzhou.
In another third round match, Xu Xin of China and Yang Ha-eun of South Korea also cruised through with a 4-0 win over their Russian opponents Grigory Vlasov and Yana Noskova.
“This is our third match and our understanding is getting better and better,” said Yang. “I studied a lot of Xu’s footage before I came to Suzhou in order to know more of his style and coupled with his partnership over these two days, it looks fine.”
Xu, a top favourite in the men’s singles, was pleased with his foreign partner, saying the Koreans are always strong in the doubles and the combination works well.
