By Neha Aggarwal

Top two seeded players in the Junior Girls’ singles went to Hong Kong: Minnie Soo Wai Yam and Mak Tze Wing both qualified in the top spot in their respective groups.

Minnie Soo Wai Yam, occupied the top spot in group one winning all the three matches and thus securing six points. Second place in her group went to Chinese Taipei’s Fang Sih-Han, winning five points. She beat both Caroline Hajok (GER) and Abir Haj Salah (TUN) but lost to Minnie Soo Wai Yam in straight sets. She will play the winner of group three, Kana Takeuchi in the round of eight. Minnie Soo Wai Yam on the other hand will play against Su Pei-Ling (TPE), who secured the second spot in group three.

But there was a lot of drama in group two as three players- Mak Tze Wing, Archana Girish Kamath and Amy Wang won two matches and lost one match, thus were in a triple tie. Moving further, all three secured five points each. These points were calculated as per the number of matches won by each player, every win is awarded two points and a loss is awarded one point. However, when the ratio of the games won over games lost was calculated, matters became clear. Mak Tze Wing clearly became the winner with a ratio of 6:4, Amy Wang secured the second spot (4:6) and Archana Girish Kamath was left disappointed as she was placed third with ratio of 4:4.

Mak Tze Wing will now compete against Japan’s Yuko Kato, who reached the last eight by securing the second position in group four. Amy Wang will have to pull up her socks as she will be up against Romania’s Andreea Dragoman, seeded fourth, in the round of last eight.

The Junior girls’ consolation round of eights has also been placed. The players who occupied the third and fourth spot in the qualification stage will play the consolation stage which is a progressive knock out system. Germany’s Caroline Hajok leads the charts and India’s Archana Girish Kamath has occupied the second spot.

Matches will commence at 3pm IST. Watch all the LIVE action only on ITTF’s YouTube channel.