by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

The win means that Mima Ito repeats the success of last year and has now won the two most recent meetings against Kasumi Ishikawa in world ranking tournaments

On the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour she beat Kasumi Ishikawa in the final of the Women’s Singles event in the Czech Republic, having the previous week experienced defeat when they had met in the title decider in Bulgaria.

“I played quite well at the first game. Even though I lost the second game, I started the third game in a good form and had the confidence to win. I was leading in the match by three games to one but then lost the fifth game. The interval between China Open and Hong Kong Open has been quite short. I will try as hard as always and hope to lead in my semi-final match from the start.” Mima Ito

Awaiting Mima Ito in the semi-final is Wang Manyu; the player against whom she experienced defeat by the very narrowest of margins in the penultimate round last week at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Hang Seng Hong Kong Open (8-11, 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11,6, 11-5, 12-10).

Ever more safe and secure in her play, in Shenzhen Wang Manyu proved too consistent for the defensive skills of Han Ying (11-8, 11-6, 14-12, 6-11, 11-4).

“Overall, I played well but the only pity was I started slowly.” Han Ying

The semi-final will be played later in the day; in the opposite half of the draw, China’s Ding Ning meets Japan’s Saki Shibata.