The preliminary group phase of the Dishang 2020 ITTF Women’s World Cup concluded today. At the Weihai Nanhai Olympic Sport Centre in China 13 players were fighting for the eight remaining places in the main draw scheduled for tomorrow. The list of Europeans was reduced to two names. In the Round of 16 will play Germany’s HAN Ying and Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS.
HAN Ying booked the top position in Group one after two straight games wins. In the opening match he beat JEON Jihee of Korea the highest seeded player in group in superb style. HAN needed only 29 minutes to overcome a player seeded five positions higher than her 4-0 (11-5 11-8 11-4 11-4). In the same Group Britt EERLAND of Netherlands was also close to create an upset and to overcame JEON as well (7-11 13-15 13-11 13-11 7-11 11-9 11-9). In dramatic encounter JEON showed she had better nerves in the finishing stage of the decisive game.
In the contest between two European players HAN showed no mercy. After furious start HAN ended the match with clear record (11:3 11:5 11:7 11:6). JEON finished second and progressed to knock out stage.
In Group 2 Margaryta PESOTSKA overcame Lily ZHANG of USA (15-13 11-6 11-5 7-11 3-11 12-10) and Zhang MO of Canada (11-2 11-6 11-13 16-14 11-4) but she lost to Adriana DIAZ of Puerto Rico(11-9 10-12 11-9 9-11 12-10 11-8). DIAZ overcame a 4-point deficit in the fifth game before completely controlling the sixth giving her Ukrainian opponent no chance to return into the match. Lily ZHANG and DIAZ moved to Round of 16.
In Group three Petrissa SOLJA of Germany failed to justify her leading position in Group. She lost to CHEN Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei (8-11 11-2 11-9 9-11 11-5 11-9) in the thrilling match. SOLJA had an early lead but CHEN was in control after that. Earlier WU Yue of USA created great upset against SOLJA (11-5 11-4 11-7 9-11 8-11 3-11 11-9). North American was three games in reverse before she leveled to win. In the decisive game she was very determined. CHEN and WU booked two leading places in the Group.
In Group 4 Bernadette SZOCS sealed the playing day with the 4:3 victory over Dina MESHREF of Egypt (8-11 11-5 11-8 10-12 11-6 10-12 11-5) to book her place among top 16 players. In the highest quality match after over the 50 minutes of play SZOCS nullified MESHREF’s recovery. After being down 2-3 overall and 1-7 against the Romanian superstar African Cup winner upped the ante and took the battle to the next level with a string of forehand winners – propelling her to a 12-10 win and taking the duel to a decider. SUH Hyowon booked top position after two wins. She beat Bernadette SZOCS in six games (8-11 11-3 11-9 13-11 8-11 11-7).
