by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

She needed the full seven games to beat Amy Wang of the United States, the no.10 seed, eventually succeeding by the minimal two point margin in the deciding game (12-10, 9-11, 3-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11).

Notably it was the third time that the two had met on the international scene, rather less dramatically at the Croatia Junior and Cadet Open, Su Pei-Ling had prevailed in 2016 when they confronted each other in the Junior Girls’ Singles event, last year she repeated the success in the Junior Girls’ Team competition.

Similar but in less exacting circumstances, Maki Shiomi, Miyu Nagasaki and Adina Diaconu repeated earlier successes.

Maki Shiomi who had beaten Hong Kong’s Chau Wing Sze last year at the Swedish Junior and Cadet Open secured a straight games success against the no.6 seed (11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 11-3).

Likewise, Miyu Nagasaki showed no charity in her defeat of Chen Ting-Ting, the no.11 seed (11-6, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7), nor did Adina Diaconu when facing Thailand’s Jinnipa Sawettabut, the no.8 seed (7-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6, 11-5). In 2016 on the ITTF World Junior Circuit, Adina Diaconu had beaten Jinnipa Sawettabut in Poland and had also succeeded in the Under 21 Women’s Singles event in Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, for Miyu Nagasaki it was her fourth confrontation against Chen Ting-Ting and her fourth win. Previously on the 2014 ITTF World Junior Circuit in Chinese Taipei she had beaten Chen Ting-Ting in both the Cadet Girls’ Singles and Cadet Girls’ Team events; last she also prevailed in the Junior Girls’ Singles competition in Hong Kong.

At the semi-final stage Maki Shiomi meets Adina Diaconu, Su Pei-Ling opposes Miyu Nagasaki,

Play in Luxembourg concludes on Sunday 4th February-