Well done partner, a first ITTF World Tour success as a pair for Miu Hirano (left) and (right) Kasumi Ishikawa (Photo: Richrad Kalocsai)
Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting-Doo Hoi Kem justified their top seeding to win the mixed doubles title at the World Tour Hungarian Open in Budapest.
The pair clinched their third career title with a hard earned 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 win over seventh seeds Patrick Franziska-Petrissa Solja of German in the final.
“We were very determined to win this final; we prepared from early in the morning. The match started well; after the first game then it was a bit shaky in the second. I think it was very important to win the third game to hold a lead. We were up 4-0 and 7-4 but then it became tight. I remember it was 8–6 when Petrissa played an amazing counter topspin.
We decided to stop to calm down a bit and reset. It proved to be the right decision as we won the game and lost the next one so technically we could have lost 3-1. In the last end, we just played point by point not thinking about the outcome and fighting hard. It paid off. We are very happy with our gold medal here in Budapest as it was well earned,” said Chun Ting
The victory over their rivals, who are the reigning European Games gold medalists, added to their title wins at the Korean Open and Australian Open last year.
While Franziska-Solja were denied in their first World Tour final appearance, Franziska went on to win the men’s doubles title with partner Benedikt Duda.
Franziska-Duda, seeded second in the men’s doubles, defeated Indian qualifiers Sharath Kamal Achanta-Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 in the final.
It was the first World Tour doubles title for the duo as a pair. Franziska had four four title previously partnering Denmark’s Jonathan Groth and on three occasions with colleague Timo Boll.
After two successive runners-up finish it was third time lucky for Japan’s Miu Hirano-Kasumi Ishikawa. The fourth seeded pair, who were runners up last October in Sweden and in Germany three weeks ago won the women’s doubles title defeating Hong Kong’s second seeded Hoi Kem-Lee Ho Ching 11-6, 11-9, 12-10 in the final.
Hirano, was however not so lucky in the women’s singles competition. Fourteenth seed Han Ying seed caused an upset in the quarter-final when she beat Hirano, the fourth seed 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9.
IN the semi-finals, Han Ying will be up against top seeded Mima, who overcame fellow Japanese Hitomi Sato 9-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-1, 11-2). Chinese Taipei’s Cheng I-Ching takes on Kasumi Ishikawa in the other semi-finals.
Crowned Japanese national champion earlier in the year in January, Japan’s 18-year-old Yukiya Uda continued his progress when he beat fellow qualifier, Austrian veteran Robert Gardos 11-6, 7-11, 16-18, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 in the men’s singles qualifiers.
His top seeded teammate Tomokazu Harimoto; he accounted for Germany’s Benedikt Duda 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4 in his quarter-final tie.
Harimoto face another German Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the semi-finals while Uda plays England’s Liam Pitchford.
About Post Author
