In the first women’s semi-final, world number one Liu Shiwen stopped Hong Kong’s Tie Yana’s run to the finals.
Having placed third in her group, Tie had to fight her way through the Challenge round and the quarter finals, first defeating Yang Haeun of Korea before accounting for Yu Mengyu of Singapore in a marathon effort, 16-14, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 19-17 to make it to the semi-final.
Tie lost her momentum though, going down to Liu Shiwen in straight games, 11-1, 11-5, 11-7, 11-4.
In the other semi-final defending champion Feng Tianwei of Singapore surrendered her title, being overcome by a determined Li Xiaoxia, who received tremendous support from a vocal and predominantly Chinese crowd, running out winner in six games, 11-7,11- 4, 4-11, 4-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6.
Tie Yana and Feng Tianwei will battle it out for the bronze medal at 2pm on Saturday, with the women’s final at 3.30pm.
In the gold medal match Li Xiaoxia, who qualified for the Olympics at the recent Asian Olympic Qualification tournament in Hong Kong, will be aiming to collect one of the few titles she is yet to win, while her teammate and opponent Liu Shiwen will be conscious of the eyes of Olympic selectors as she strives to win the Asian Cup for the fourth time.
In the men’s first semi-final defending Asian Cup champion and top seed Xu Xin, who, like Liu Shiwen, is yet to qualify for the Olympics and is keen to prove his worth to selectors, was up against veteran Gao Ning of Singapore.
Admission is free to Saturday’s finals.
Gao started well, winning the first game 11-8, before Xu found his form, and to the delight of the crowd won the next four games straight, 11-7, 11-2, 11-4, 11-1.
The final match of the evening, between crowd favourite Zhang Jike of China and Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong, went the way of the favourite, with Zhang winning 11-7, 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-5,11- 8, providing great entertainment for the enthusiastic fans.
Like Tie Yana in the women’s semi-final, Wong had earlier played off in the Challenge match after placing third in his Group. He first overcame Chuang Chih-Yuan before defeating the fourth seed Jun Mizutani in the quarter finals.
Wong Chun Ting and Gao Ning will now play off for the bronze medal at 2.45pm, while Zhang and Xu will meet in an all-China showdown at 4.30pm in the closing match of the event.
In the play offs for the minor placings in the men’s singles, Jun Mituzani of Japan finished fifth, with Lee Sangsu of Korea in sixth. Soumyajit Ghosh of India came through the Intercontinental Group to finish seventh with Chiang Hung Chieh of Chinese Taipei in eighth.
In the women’s minor placings Miu Hirano of Japan defeated her team mate Mima Ito to take fifth and sixth respectively, Jiang Huajun of Hong Kong finished seventh, with Yu Mengyu of Singapore, who had to withdraw with an injury, in eighth.
The finals will be held on Saturday, with the bronze medal matches commencing at 2pm and the gold medal matches from 3.30 – 5.30pm. Admission to the tournament is free.
Spectators can get involved in the action with free to play tables provided by Ping Pong Dubai located around the venue. Fans will also have the opportunity to meet the stars at an autograph signing session, for full details, go to the Ping Pong Dubai Facebook page.
For all the details of the competition schedule and results go to www.ittf.com.
