by Simon Daish

Lee Sangsu was one of a handful of players to register shock wins in the Round of 16 when he overcame Belarusian legend Vladimir Samsonov across five ends, but unfortunately for the Korea Republic man his 2016 World Cup campaign came to an end at the next round of matches where he met Wong Chun Ting.

The opening game between Wong Chun Ting and Lee Sangsu was actually pretty close with the former of the two names taking the lead after a narrow first end win, and Wong went from strength to strength as the battle progressed.

Success in games two and three soon followed for Wong, before his triumph in the fourth game confirmed his place in the last four (11-9, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5) and set up a tantalising ‘battle of the penholders’ encounter with Xu Xin in the process.

“It was not a difficult match for me because I had played him several times and I knew how to play against him,” said Wong Chun Ting after his quarter-finals victory over Lee Sangsu. “We have met ten times and we have now beaten each other five times.”

The contestant from Hong Kong will be quietly confident of his chances of reaching the final, with Wong Chun Ting having defeated his next World Cup opponent Xu Xin in their previous match at the 2016 SheSays China Open.

“Against Xu Xin I will try my best because in our previous meetings he has defeated me six times and I have only beaten him once. It is going to be difficult but I will try my best tomorrow. I never expected that I would make it the semi-finals stage because most of the players here are on the same level with me and they are top players” – Wong Chun Ting (Hong Kong).

Lee Sangsu never really managed to reach his full potential against Wong Chun Ting, and the Korean player put his loss down to his inability to control Wong’s tricky spin shots, “He played with a lot of spin and I found it difficult to control his spins. I was not nervous at all in the match, it was just that I could not control his spins.”