Athens 2004

August 16, 2004

Chinese women advance

(Translated from an article on sports.sina.com.cn)

At 8 pm local time, the round-of-16 competiton of the women' doubles event started. In less than 30 minutes, the two Chinese pairs beat their respective components by identical scores of 4-0, and advanced to the quarter-finals.

There were 4 matches held concurrently. Guo Yue/Niu Jianfeng played on the number 1 table, opposite Huang I-Hua and  Lu Yun-Feng from Taipei. Because this was the first match for the two Chinese players, they appeared nervous, and fell behind 1-4 in the first game. Then they started to adjust and played much better, and only took 21 minutes to win the match to advance to the final 8. On another table Wang Nan/Zhang Yining faced Stefanova/Tan-Monfardini of Italy. In this match Cai Zhenhua was the coach on the court. In the first two games, Zhang/Wang played well to win 11-6 and 11-3. But from the 3rd game on, their opponents executed unusually well, and made some very difficult shots. Zhang/Wang fell behind 4-8 in game 3, but using their vast experience, were able to come back to win the game 12-10. The 4th game was also a hard-fought one, with the Chinese winning 14-12 to wrap up the match.

On the 3rd table, Hong Kong's Lin Ling/Lau Sui Fei played against Japan's Umemura/Fujinuma. This was the most closely-contested match of the 4, and the Japanese pair won 4-2. On the 4th table, Hong Kong's Tie Yana/Song Ah Sim easily beat the Russian pair Ganina/Palina 4-0.

In the quarters, Zhang/Wang will face Tie/Song, while Niu/Guo plays Umemera/Fujinuma.

After the matches I spoke to the two Chinese pairs. They said that they were all nervous playing in the first match. Niu and Guo said that when they first saw the very bright lights in the large hall covered with red and green carpeting, they were tense. But as the match went in, they felt more and more adjusted. They said that they were able to play at 60 to 70% of their normal level. Overall they were satisfied with their performance. Wang and Zhang also said that they were playing below their normal level.

(Chung's notes: The other pairs advancing to the quarters are Lee Eun Sil/Seok Eun Mi of Korea, Kim Hyang Mi/Kim Hyon Hui of PRK, Boros/Vaida of Croatia and Kim Bok Rae/Kim Kyung Ah of Korea, who beat Jing/Li of Singapore in the closest match of this round.)


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