2016 Rio Olympic Games
In the opening round of the Women’s Team event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Brazil confronted China the top seeds. The defending champions and favorites to add to the titles secured in 2008 in Beijing and four years later in London prevailed in straight matches. Germany overcame USA on their way to the quarters.
HAN Ying and SHAN Xiaona overcame ZGEN Jiaqi and ZHANF Lily whilst Petrissa SOLJA and SHAN Xiaona went full distance against USA doubles composed of WU Yue and ZHENG.
HAN Ying said: “I was so nervous before the match but I came through; ZHENG Jiaqi is quite good against defence.”
In all European duel Austria prevailed against Netherlands. LIU Jia was a pivotal player for Austria. She beat LI JIao and Britt EERLAND whilst LI Jie brought the only point for the Dutch team.
LIU Jia said: “I have played Li Jiao many times and I always used to win but recently I think I’ve lost at least four times the European Games the Super League the European League and the World Championships. In the first game I made so many mistakes I lost the first seven points of the match. Today I tried to make some changes and eventually things worked out.”
Seeded no. three Singapore also secured opening round win against Egypt whilst DPR Korea overcame Australia. Only one match which went full distance was the one between the seventh seed Republic of Korea and Romania seeded at the position no. 12.
World’s no 11 JEON Jihee beat player currently ranked at the position no. 30 Elizabeta SAMARA in straight games to give her team a dream start. The duel between 17th player at the World rankings SUH Hyowon against the World’s no. 58 Daniela DODEAN MONTEIRO went in favour of the lower ranked player. Daniela and Bernadette SZOCS could not keep the winning course in next clash. JEON partnering YANG Haeun secured advantage once again. On her second return to the table SAMARA gained parity for Romania. She beat YANG and the match entered the fifth nail biting decisive game. SZOCS’s attacking skills versus SUH’s defence streched the favorite to full five games but the last game finished in the favor of Korea’s player.
Japan succeeded against Poland. Katarzyna GRZYBOWSKA-FRANC suffered by the hands of Kasumi ISHIKAWA Mima ITO overcame LI Qian; combination of Natalia PARTYKA and GRZYBOWSKA-FRANC lost against Ai FUKUHARA and Mima ITO.
