by Ian Marshall, Editor

Entitled “Fighting till the last drop of blood”, the event involved six pairs; the world ranking of the male player determining the seeding.

Thus Xu Xin and Sun Yingsha, Fan Zhendong and Gu Yuting alongside Ma Long and Ding Ning formed the seeded pairs.

The next three pairs were drawn at random: Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu, Yu Ziyang and Gu Yuting, Liang Jingkun and Chen Meng.

Straight knock-out comprised the first stage; the three winning pairs progressing to a round robin event to decide the winner.

Matches in the first stage were best of seven games, in the second stage best of five games.

Stage One:

          Ma Long / Ding Ning bt Lin Gaoyuan / Wang Manyu 11-7, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
          Fan Zhendong / Gu Yuting bt Yu Ziyang / Gu Yuting 11-6, 11-9, 11-9, 11-5
          Xu Xin / Sun Yingsha bt Liang Jingkun / Chen Meng 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4

Stage Two:

         Fan Zhendong / Gu Yuting bt Ma Long / Ding Ning 14-12, 11-7, 5-11, 11-5
         Xu Xin / Sun Yingsha bt Ma Long / Ding Ning 11-9, 11-8, 11-8
         Xu Xin / Sun Yingsha bt Fan Zhendong / Gu Yuting 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9

The mixed doubles event concluded, attention now turns to the men’s singles and women’s singles competitions.

Schedule of Play – Thursday 2nd January

1.00pm      MS     Fan Zhendong v Zhang Yudong
1.00pm      MS     Chen Xingtong v He Zhuojia

2.00pm     WS     Sun Yingsha v Gu Yuting
2.00pm     MS     Zhao Zihao v Zhou Qihao

3.00pm     WS     Ding Ning v Zhang Rui
3.00pm     MS     Lin Gaoyuan v Ma Te

7.00pm     MS     Ma Long v Xue Fei
7.00pm     WS     Zhu Yuling v Qian Tianyi

8.00pm    WS     Chen Meng v Liu Fei
8.00pm    MS     Liang Jingkun v Zhou Kai

9.00pm    MS     Xu Xin v Xu Chenhao
9.00pm    WS     Wang Manyu v Wang Yidi