by Ian Marshall, Editor
Furthermore, the Belgian duo almost joined the casualty list; they booked their semi-final place by overcoming the French partnership formed by Oceane Guisnel and Marie Migot in a tense full distance five games quarter-final encounter determined by the minimal two point margin in the decider (11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-13, 11-9).
Lisa Lung and Margo Degraef now meet Poland’s Anna Wegrzyn and Katarzyna Wegrzyn in the penultimate round, very much a pair in form. In the second round they ousted the Belarus combination of Nadezhda Bogdanova and Daria Trigolos, the no.4 seeds (7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9), prior to recording a quarter-final success in opposition to the outfit formed by Slovakia’s Tatiana Kukulkova and Italy’s Jamila Laurenti (3-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4).
Hard fought contests and upsets, it was no different in the opposite half of the draw. At the quarter-final stage the pairing of England’s Tin-Tin Ho and Austria’s Karoline Mischek recovered from a two games to nil deficit to beat Romania’s Adina Diaconu and Andreea Dragoman, the no.2 seeds (8-11, 11-13, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7).
In the penultimate round they meet the combination formed by Audrey Zarif of France and Spain’s Zhang Xuan. In the round of the last eight pairs, Audrey Zarif and Zhang Xuan ended the hopes of Spain’s Andrea Perez and Romania’s Tania Plaian (11-13, 11-9, 11-4, 11-2), the pair who had received a walk-over one round earlier, when due to face Russia’s Mariia Tailakova and Valeria Shcherbarykh, the no.3 seeds; Mariia Tailakova being forced to withdraw owing to injury.
Play in Gondomar concludes on Sunday 10th March.
