The Hong Kong Open kicked off today with the doubles events, which saw some standout matches and many closely fought points, as all pairs took to the court to fight for the title.
The Women’s Elite Doubles saw an extremely close match between two strong pairs, as Myriam Enmer and Crystal Ho Suet Ying took on Cheuk Ying Kwan and Elif Wong. All four sports were close, with Myriam and Crystal winning table tennis 21-17, before losing badminton to 14 and squash to 22, meaning that Cheuk and Elif went into tennis needing 17. After a very close game of tennis Cheuk and Elif came away on top taking tennis 17-17 to claim victory.
In the first round of the Mixed Doubles Myriam Enmer and Anthony Duthuillé and Stephanie Chung and Bryan Leung progressed into semi-finals, to join the first seeds Elif Wong and Nicolas Lenggenhager and the second seeds Crystal Ho Suet Ying and Tze Ho Ho. Two close matches followed, with Stephanie and Bryan beating the first seeds to reach the final, whilst Crystal and Tze also progressed with a strong win over Myriam and Duthuillé. The final went all the way to tennis before Stephanie and Bryan claimed victory 15-15 in the tennis, whilst Elif and Nicolas claimed third.
After four very close first round matches, the semi-final line up was confirmed, with the first seeds Koen Hageraats and Nicolas Lenggenhager taking on Bridge Yan Kiu Lam and Bryan Leung, while Steven Wai Kit Cheng and Kevin Ho Ching Ng faced Keith Lesser and Duncan Stahl. After two hard fought matches Koen and Nicolas progressed to the final alongside Steven and Kevin. This will be played tomorrow.
The Women’s B doubles started in the semi-finals stage with Sin Ming Cindy Ho and Wan Yin Lui playing Yuk Ming Cheung and Svetlana Kasilova, whilst Ho Ching Chan and Sum Yi Tan took on Yin Tung Lam and Wing Yan Li. Yuk and Svetlana progressed to the final with a +16 victory, whilst Ho and Sum advanced to the final with a +2 point victory going all the way down to wire, requiring a 22-20 victory in tennis. The final and the third-fourth playoff will be completed tomorrow.
A 16 strong draw took to the courts on Friday in the Men’s B with some brilliant matches and close games being played out. There were two very close matches in the semis, with Dawei Feng and Samuel K S Li progressing through to the final with a +10-point victory over Cheuk Fung Tsang and Tsz Him Wong, whilst Leigh Sands and Frank Kleiber claimed their spot in Saturday’s final with a +6-point victory over Hei Nam Lee and Bong Tai Shu.
In the Mixed B there were some very close matches in the semi-final stage, with Svetlana Kasilova and Sergei Seregin claiming victory over Yin Tung Lam and Chun Cheung by a + 3 margin, to reach the final, whilst Nga Man Pong and Cheuk Fung Tsan beat Wing Yan Li and Tsz Chung Chan by +6 to progress. In the final Svetlana and Sergei claimed victory and the title with a +16 victory and Yin and Chun finished third.
We are looking forward to the conclusion of the doubles finals tomorrow and the start of the singles.
