After two hectic days of Pool Matches it was down to the Playoff stages of the WSF World Teams at HKFC. The top 16 men’s and the top 12 women’s – top two finishers in each pool – featured in today’s Last 16 matches, while the men’s 17-26 and women’s 13-23 playoffs also began.
Women’s Pre-Quarters :
With the top four seeds waiting in the quarter-finals for today’s winners, three of the four matches went the distance. 5/8 seeds Malaysia suffered an early scare as they went 1-0 down to Japan, but won the next two matches to progress. to a meeting with Belgium. India held off a fightback from Australia to set up a match against USA while France beat Canada 2-0 to book a QF against top seeds Egypt.
The match of the round saw hosts Hong Kong come from one down to thwart Scotland, Lee Ka Yi winning a thriller against Alison Thomson to decide the match and book a QF against Belgium.
Men’s Last 16 :
There were some thrilling men’s encounters, mostly in the evening session leading to a late finish. Hosts Hong Kong faced a tough match against 7th seeds USA following their Pool loss to Pakistan, and needed to fight back from a game down to secure a thrilling victory. They’ll now face second seeds England who also had to recover from one – and almost two – down against Spain.
Pakistan and Germany met in the only unseeded match, and it was Germany who edged through with veteran Simon Rosner taking the deciding match. They now meet top seeds Egypt, who eased past Canada 2-0.
Third seeds France eased past South Africa and now meet India, who upset fifth seeds Malaysia with a comeback 2-1 win. Fourth seeds Switzerland beat Czechia 2-0 and now meet sixth seeds Colombia who fought back to beat Scotland 2-1.
Full results and photos below …
Women’s Pre-Quarter-Finals :
CANADA 0-2 FRANCE (winners meet Egypt in QF)
Hollie Naughton 0-3 Melissa Alves 8-11, 5-11, 8-11 (30m)
Nikki Todd 0-3 Lauren Baltayan 8-11, 12-14, 3-11 (26m)
Nicole Bunyan v Marie Stephan match w/d
HONG KONG 2-1 SCOTLAND (winners meet Belgium in QF)
Tomato Ho 0-3 Georgia Adderley 10-12, 1-11, 5-11 (31m)
Tong Tsz-Wing 3-0 Ellie Jones 11-8, 11-4, 11-2 (25m)
Lee Ka Yi 3-2 Alison Thomson 11-8, 11-4, 14-16, 10-12, 11-9 (58m)
MALAYSIA 2-1 JAPAN (winners meet England in QF)
Siva Subramaniam 0-3 Satomi Watanabe 3-11, 6-11, 6-11 (23m)
Aira Azman 3-0 Mahiro Nishio 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 (20m)
Rachel Arnold 3-0 Akari Midorikawa 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 (20m)
AUSTRALIA 1-2 INDIA (winners meet USA in QF)
Jessica Turnbull 0-3 Anahat Singh 9-11, 6-11, 8-11 (25m)
Sarah Cardwell 3-1 Nirupama Dubey 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 (34m)
Alex Haydon 0-3 Akanksha Salunkhe 8-11, 5-11, 6-11 (32m)
Men’s Last Sixteen Matches
[1] EGYPT 2-0 CANADA
Mostafa Asal 3-1 David Baillargeon 12-10, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5 (42m)
Karim Abdel Gawad 3-0 Connor Turk 11-6, 11-8, 11-5 (25m)
Mazen Hesham v Salah Eltorhman match w/d
PAKISTAN 1-2 GERMANY
Muhd Asim Khan 2-3 Raphael Kandra 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 4-11, 9-11 (58m)
Nasir Iqbal 3-0 Yannik Omlor 11-8, 11-2, 11-6 (27m)
Noor Zaman 1-3 Simon Rosner 11-8, 7-11, 5-11, 4-11 (38m)
[3] FRANCE 2-0 SOUTH AFRICA
Victor Crouin 3-0 Dewald van Niekerk 11-1, 11-6, 11-6 (37m)
Gregoire Marche 3-1 Luhann Groenwald 9-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 (34m)
Baptiste Masotti v Damian Groenwald match w/d
[5] MALAYSIA 1-2 INDIA
Eain Yow Ng 3-0 Abhay Singh 13-11, 11-9, 11-5 (40m)
Mohd Syafiq Kamal 0-3 Veer Chotrani 8-11, 6-11, 5-11 (25m)
Sanjay Jeeva 1-3 Velavan Senthilkumar 8-11, 11-7, 3-11, 4-11 (39m)
17.30 C7 [6] COLOMBIA 2-1 SCOTLAND
Miguel Rodriguez 1-3 Greg Lobban 11-7, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9 (52m)
Ronald Palomino 3-0 Alasdair Prott 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (29m)
Juan Camilo Vargas 3-0 Rory Stewart 11-7, 11-7, 11-2 (33m)
[4] SWITZERLAND 2-0 CZECH REP.
Dimitri Steinmann 3-0 Viktor Byrtus 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 (25m)
Yannick Wilhelmi 3-0 Daniel Mekbib 11-4, 11-7, 11-5 (27m)
Nicolas Mueller v Jakub Solnicky match w/d
[7] USA 1-2 [8] HONG KONG
Timmy Brownell 3-2 Alex Lau 11-6, 9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8 (65m)
Nicholas Spizzirri 1-3 Tang Ming Tong 8-11, 11-4, 6-11, 12-14 (47m)
Spencer Lovejoy 1-3 Henry Leung 6-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-4 (43m)
19.30 C7 [2] ENGLAND 2-1 SPAIN
Mohamed ElShorbagy 0-3 Iker Pajares 6-11, 8-11, 1-11 (35m)
Curtis Malik 3-1 Edmon Lopez 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 17-15 (65m)
Marwan ElShorbagy 3-0 Ivan Perez 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 (32m)
