In her one and only encounter on the opening day of play, in the group stage of the women’s singles event, the 25 year old secured a hard fought confidence boosting win. She accounted for the host nation’s Kim Mi Ra (11-5, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6).

Guo Ruochen was a junior girls’ singles semi-finalist at the World Junior Championships in 2011 in Manama and the following year in Hyderabad; notably in those years also emerging successful in Hong Kong on the ITTF World Junior Circuit. Later in 2015 she was a semi-finalist on the ITTF World Tour in Germany, in May of that year she reached no.45 on the women’s world rankings but since the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Austrian Open has not been present on the international scene.

A first match back; it was no easy task for Guo Ruochen in Pyongyang.

Otherwise, in the women’s singles event, it was a series of domestic battles; a situation that was prevalent in the counterpart men’s singles competition but when faced with adversaries from Chinese Taipei, the technical quality and depth of the host nation’s talent was underlined. Kim Song Il beat Huang Yan-Cheng (12-10, 11-4, 11-8), U Tae Ryong accounted for Huang Yu-Jen (11-5, 11-2, 11-7); Ryu Kuk Bin ended the hopes of Peng Chih (7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 12-10).

Play in the qualification tournament concludes on Thursday 25th July.