Powerful display sends Chinese stars through

Champions last week in Busan, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin are now just two victories from repeating that achievement in Geelong following a 3-1 victory over Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting (11-8, 11-6, 5-11, 11-4). China also experienced success via Lin Gaoyuan and Ma Long, who simply outclassed the Swedish duo of Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson (13-11, 11-5, 11-4).

Elsewhere, Korean top seeds Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu raced into the semifinals with a convincing win against Germany’s Patrick Franziska and Ricardo Walther (13-11, 11-7, 12-10). Next up for the defending champions is a tie with Amalraj Anthony and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran after the Indian pair fought back from 0-1 behind to beat Korean opposition in the form of third seeds Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon (5-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-8).

Koreans show their strength

In the two remaining women’s singles quarterfinal meetings it was a case of victory all-round for Korea Republic: trailing 1-2 on the scoreboard, Choi Hyojoo and Lee Eunhye recovered back-to-back games to see off Romania’s Bernadette Szocs and Spain’s Maria Xiao (11-4, 7-11, 13-15, 11-4, 11-9) while second seeds Jeon Jihee and Yang Haeun powered past Singapore’s Lin Ye and Yu Mengyu (11-7, 18-16, 11-8).

Top seeds pushed hard

China’s Chen Meng and Wang Manyu are through to the last four of the women’s doubles event, but were severely tested in their full distance encounter against Japan’s Miu Hirano and Saki Shibata (11-7, 14-12, 7-11, 4-11, 11-6).

The other Japanese partnership on duty in quarterfinals action, Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki fared better than their fellow compatriots, beating Australia’s Jee Minhyung and Jian Fang Lay (11-5, 11-3, 11-7) to move to within one win from a spot in the gold medal contest.

All-Hong Kong affair

Featuring two partnerships from Hong Kong it was Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem that held the upper hand over colleagues Ho Kwan Kit and Lee Ho Ching on table 2 as the second seeds accounted for their sixth seeded opponents by a 3-1 margin (11-1, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7).

Lee Sangsu and Jeon Jihee’s meeting with Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova also favoured the higher seeded pair as the Koreans, seeded fourth, prevailed over their Slovak counterparts across four games (11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-4).

Australian hopes dashed

The host nation’s Heming Hu and Melissa Tapper have fallen at the quarterfinal stage of the mixed doubles event in Geelong with the no.8 seeded pair losing out to the fierce Japanese combination of Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito in straight games (11-5, 11-6, 11-0).

Over on table 2 it was success for the highly impressive duo of Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching: the Chinese Taipei stars cruised past French opponents Tristan Flore and Laura Gasnier, needing just three games to seal the win (11-8, 11-5, 11-8).

Exciting action to come on day two!

Following a thrilling opening to the Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum Australian Open it’s time for day two of main draw action – here’s the fixture schedule and make sure to watch along live with itTV: