Spain`s SHEN Yanfei Austria`s LIU Jia and Germany`s Sabine WINTER were beaten by Hong Kong`s TIE Yana Taipei`s CHENG I-Ching and Singapore`s FENG Tianwei respectively
There are no European players in the semi-finals of the Seamaster 2016 ITTF Women´s World Cup in Philadelphia USA. SHEN Yanfei from Spain LIU Jia from Austria and Sabine WINTER from Germany lost their games against Hong Kong`s TIE Yana Taipei`s CHENG I-Ching and FENG Tianqei respectively.
Top seeded FENG Tianwei from Singapore (World No. 6) won both her matches in a straight games beating in the Round of 16 Egypt`s Dina MESHREF (No. 120). In same stage Sabine WINTER (No. 56) prevailed against Korea`s YANG Haeun (No. 28) after full seven games. It was an impressive comeback as German`s player was three sets down – 4:3 (10:12 9:11 10:12 11:8 12:10 11:4 11:7).
Round of 16 brought two all-European clashes: the 2005 individual European champion LIU Jia (AUT No. 21) beat Georgina POTA (HUN No. 34) in five sets while SHEN Yanfei (ESP No. 57) was better than Olympic Team Silver medalist Petrissa SOLJA (GER No. 16) in six games.
One of four countries will go down in history having a very first non-Chinese winner after 20 years dominancy of China. Semi-final pairs are FENG Tianwei (SGP) vs. Miu HIRANO (JPN) TIE Yana (HKG) vs. CHENG I-Ching (TPE). Rio 2016 Olympic Singles Champion DING Ning (CHN) and four time Women’s World Cup Champion LIU Shiwen (CHN) were forced to withdraw from the event due to injury.
Round of 16
FENG Tianwei (SGP) – Dina MESHREF (EGY) 4:0 (11:9 11:8 11:6 11:5)
Sabine WINTER (GER) – YANG Haeun (KOR) 4:3 (10:12 9:11 10:12 11:8 12:10 11:4 11:7)
Miu HIRANO (JPN) – Elizabeta SAMARA (ROU) – 4:2 (11:9 11:4 3:11 11:9 7:11 11:8)
Sofia POLCANOVA (AUT) – Mima ITO (JPN) 2:4 (11:8 9:11 11:7 8:11 11:13 8:11)
Petrissa SOLJA (GER) – SHEN Yanfei (ESP) 2:4 (11:5 5:11 11:9 8:11 4:11 2:11)
JIANG Huajun (HKG) – TIE Yana (HKG) 1:4 (7:11 9:11 6:11 11:7 9:11)
LIU Jia (AUT) – Georgina POTA (HUN) 4:1 (11:9 8:11 11:8 11:9 11:8)
ZHANG Lily (USA) – CHENG I-Ching (TPE) 1:4 (8:11 6:11 10:12 13:11 12:14)
Quarter-finals
FENG Tianwei (SGP) – Sabine WINTER (GER) 4:0 (11:7 15:13 13:11 11:9)
Miu HIRANO (JPN) – Mima ITO (JPN) 4:1 (11:13 11:4 11:8 11:4 11:8)
SHEN Yanfei (ESP) – TIE Yana (HKG) 1:4 (7:11 11:5 7:11 5:11 7:11)
LIU Jia (AUT) – CHENG I-Ching (TPE) 1:4 (8:11 11:9 3:11 8:11 9:11)
Semi-finals
FENG Tianwei (SGP) – Miu HIRANO (JPN)
TIE Yana (HKG) – CHENG I-Ching (TPE)
