Song Hongyuan and Chen Meng followed by Zheng Peifeng and Gu Yuting emerged successful in the all-Chinese Mixed Doubles semi-finals at the Volkswagen World Junior Championships in Bahrain on the evening of Saturday 19th November 2011.
The pairing of Zheng Peifeng and Gu Yuting endured a severe test but for Song Hongyuan and Chen Meng, life was more comfortable.
Zheng Peifeng and Gu Yuting won in seven games (11-7, 7-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-4) after Song Hongyuan and Chen Meng had posted a straight games victory (12-10, 11-3, 13-11, 11-5).
Won in Cartagena de Indias and in Bratislava One year ago in Bratislava, the Mixed Doubles title had been won by Wu Jiaji and Gu Yuting; two years ago in Cartagena de Indias it had been secured by Fang Bo and Gu Yuting.
At the end of the seventh day of play in Bahrain, the hopes of Gu Yuting of winning the title for a third consecutive year remained alive; for Wu Jiaji the hopes of two consecutive Mixed Doubles titles had disappeared.
The bronze medal was his lot.
Left and Right Handers The combination of Wu Jiaji and Gu Ruochen was the onlyy all right handed combination to appear in the semi-finals; the other three all saw a right hander paired with a left hander.
Song Hongyuan, left handed, was in harness with the right handed Chen Meng in opposition to Wu Jiaji and Gu Ruochen; whilst in the corresponding semi-final, Zheng Peifeng joined forces with the left handed Gu Yuting and the right handed Zhu Yuling was in partnership with Lin Gaoyuan.
Consistency and Power Alas for Wu Jiaji any thoughts of winning for a second time soon disappeared, a straight games defeat was the end result with the consistency of Chen Meng and the power of the Song Hongyuan forehand being too great.
Same Style but Different However, for Gu Yuting it was better news with a different partner but likewise with a penholder.
“Yes both Wu Jiaji and Zheng Peifeng are penhold grip players but they are very different; Zheng Peifeng is very aggressive, very positive”, said Gu Yuting. “Of course playing against your colleagues and friends is never easy; we all know each other so very well.”
En Route Never easy but successful; in Bahrain Gu Yuting is on route to win three Mixed Doubles titles in a row at the Volkswagen World Junior Championships.
