Female duo of Xia Huan, Jinhua Tang becomes second Chinese semi-finalist of German Open
The Chinese female duo Xia Huan- Jinhua Tang edged their Japanese rivals Miyuki Maeda- Satoko Suetsuna in quarter-final and ensured China’s presence in the semi-final of the German Open 2012.
The pair of Xia Huan and Jinhua Tang doubled the celebrations by following the victory path, set by the other Chinese couple Shu Cheng- Pan Pan earlier.
The compatriots are scheduled to meet in the first women’s doubles semi-final on March 3 and both will be striving to have the honours of raising country’s flag in the final of the German Open.
The duo Xia Huan- Jinhua Tang reserved their right to be in the semi-final by thrashing World Number 6 Japanese pair Miyuki Maeda- Satoko Suetsuna with convincing 2-1 match score.
The nerve-racking tussle ended after keeping the scorers busy for 1 hour and 18 minutes to give the final figures of 21-14, 7-21 and 23-21.
The first set belonged to the Chinese as the duo Xia Huan-Jinhua Tang outclassed the third seeded Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna by registering the decisive score of 21-14 on the board.
The Japanese did not have any reply to their rival’s tactical and technical attacks and the Chinese breached into the Japanese defence line with great ease.
However, the first set loss could not bend the Japanese and they rose to their full stature in the next game of the match. They stormed back with their gusty performance and levelled the lead.
They turned Chinese plans of a straight-set victory into dust and did not allow them to rise from the dust. Chinese could not cover the distance and stayed far behind the Japanese in final score of 7-21.
The third set became consequential to end the guess game for semi-finalist’s name. Both teams put all they got and took the game to new heights. It was do or die situation for both contestants as the failure meant an exit from the event.
There were two times when the Chinese couple reached at match point but the Japanese pushed them away from victory but in the third take Chinese pushed them into dark by stealing the lime light with a tight yet decisive margin of 23-21.
Now in semi-final, the duo Xia Huan- Jinhua Tang is going to face the compatriot female couple Shu Cheng- Pan Pan, who beat the German pair Sandra Marinello- Birgit Michels in the quarter-final.
Tags: