Tournaments

19 Apr 2019

Success for China, a phrase with a familiar ring; on Thursday 18th April in Spa at the 2019 Belgium Junior and Cadet Open, the trio formed by Liang Jiayi, Leng Yutong and Xu Yi emerged the winners of the cadet girls’ team competition.

Impressive performances were the order of the day against outfits that proved most worthy adversaries.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

A 3-0 quarter-final win was the outcome against Italy’s Nicole Arlia and Miriam Carnovale, before the Russian pairing of Svetlana Dmitrienko and Alina Zavarykina proved most redoubtable opponents.

The Chinese duo emerged success but not before some moments of trepidation in a 3-1 success.

In the opening match of the fixture Alina Zavaykina beat Leng Yutong (11-9, 3-11, 11-2, 12-10) before a recovery was mounted. Xu Yi overcame Svetlana Dmitrienko (11-8, 11-3, 11-7), prior to Liang Jiayi and Leng Yutong recovering from a two games to nil deficit to secure the vital doubles (9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7). The momentum now in favour of China, Xu Yi offered no charity; she accounted for Alina Zavaykina in straight games (11-3, 11-5, 11-4) to seal the victory.

Undoubtedly a hard fought success, it was the same in the final against Chinese Taipei’s Liu Ru-Yuan and Tsai Yun-En; a 3-0 was posted but the contest was closer than the eventual outcome may suggest.

Liang Jiayi resisted a brave recovery by Tsai Yun-En to emerge successful by the minimal margin in the decider (11-5, 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10) to set her team on the road to victory. Xu Yi accounted for Liu Ru-Yun in four games to extend the lead (10-12, 17-15, 11-8, 11-5) before in a second full distance contest, Leng Yutong and Liang Jiayi secured the doubles (11-3, 11-5, 12-10, 9-11, 11-5).

In the opposite half of the draw, Liu Ru-Yuan and Tsai Yun-En had likewise endured somewhat testing times. At the quarter-final stage a 3-1 win had been the order of proceedings against Ukraine’s Vasylysa Kanunnikova and Iolante Yevtodi, prior to one round later the same margin of victory being recorded against Russia’s Anastasiia Beresnova and Vlada Voronina.

Play concluded in the cadet girls’ team event; attention now turns to the individual competitions.

World Junior Circuit 2019 Belgium Junior and Cadet Open Leng Yutong Xu Yi Liang Jiayi
Loading

No results found.