2014, Day 4, 04-03-2014
Day 4 started with the quarter finals of the mixed doubles. There were no big surprises as two seeded German couples moved into the semi finals together with an unseeded Hong Kong couple, who narrowly beat another German couple, and the Dutch second seeded couple of Alex Vlaar and Cheryl Seinen.
The Chinese kept their domination of the singles events alive in the 4th round. The only Chinese player to lose was Feixian Sun, who lost to 5/8 seeded June Wei Cheam from Malaysia. With 4 men, and 5 women still in the competition the question remans who will be able te break the chinese domination.
In the men's singles 1st seeded Dutchman Mark Caljouw edgded past Singapore's Zin Rei Ryan Ng in 3 sets after losing the first. (11-21, 21-18, 21-17). Second seeded German Fabian Roth had an convincing win over Tanguy Citron (9/16) from France (21-6, 21-11).
In the womans singles the 1st seeded Xiaoyu Liang lost to the 9/16 seeded chinese Yufei Chen in 2 close sets (21-18, 22-20). Other casualties of the chinese players were 3/4 seeded Kroatian Maja Plavlinic who lost in three sets to Yiman Zhang, and the 9/16 seeded Bulgarian Maria Mitsova who lost to Ming Chun Chen. The other small uset was the convincing victoru of Malaysien Ying Ying Lee over Yvonne Li of Germany (21-11, 21-9).
In the men's doubles there were some really exciting matches, but no big upsets. The German 1st seeds Johannes Pistorius and Marvin Seidel and the Dutch 2nd seeds Ruben Jille and Alex Vlaar both beat English opponents in 2 sets. The most exciting match was between the 5/8 seeded Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonthillekefrom Sri Lanka and the young Indonesian pair of Yahya Adi Kumar and Galang Decky Ramadhan which ended in a nailbiting 23-21 win in the third set for the Sri Lanka pair.
In the womens doubes both 3/4 seeded pairs lost their matches. The mexican girls Haramara Gaitan and Sabrina Solis lost to Russians Alina Davletova and Anastasiya Ronzhina while the German pair of Linda Elfer and Jennier Kanrott lost in three set to the Indonesian pair of Marsheilla Gischa Islami and Rahmadhani Hastiyanti Putri. Two dutch pairs reached the quarter finals, as 2nd seeded Dorien Lups-Cheryl Seinen had a convincing win in two sets and Imke van der Aar - Tamara van der Hoeven fought hard to win in three sets.
In the quarter finals of the men's singles the first seeded Mark Caljouw had an 2 sets win over Mexican Luis Ramon Garrido Esquivel (21-12, 21-15), to be the only non chinese player left in the draw as 2nd seeded Fabian Roth lost to 5/8 seeded Junpeng Zhao in two sets (21-13, 21-16). Malaysian June Wei Cheam lost in 2 close sets to Guipu Lin (21-19, 21-19) and Yuqi Shi completed the semi final line-up with a win over compatriot Zeqi Zhou (21-15, 21-10).
In the womens singles Ying Ying Lee form Malaysia prevented an all chinese semi final line-up by beating Yiman Zhang in a 3 sets battle that laste almaost an hour (22-20, 19-21, 21-16). In antoher hour long battle unseeded Ming Chun Chen beat compatriot Yufei Chen (21-19, 11-21, 23-21).
In the men's doubles Ruben Jille and Alex Vlaar reached the semi finals after a 3 sets battle against Felix Burestedt an Emil Welinder from Sweden. The Sri Lanka pair of Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleke won another tight 3rd set match against the 3/4 seeded French pair of Tanguy Citron and Thoams Vallez (21-14, 7-21, 21-19). The 1st seeded Germans Johannes Pistorius-Marvin Seidel and the unseeded Hong Kong pair of Yonny Chung-Shing Shoi Yeung both won in 2 straight sets to reach the semi finals.
In women's doubles the 1st seeded Katarina Galenic-Maja Pavlinic ended the English involvement in the Yonex Duthc Junior 2014 b beating Nicola Gresty-Devon Minnis in 3 sets. The Dutch second seeds Dorien Lups-Cheryl Seinen lost to the unseeded Hong Kong pair of Ka Yan Fan-Yi Ting Wu in three sets. Making up for that dissappointment for the home crowd was the win of unseeded Imke van der Aar-Tamara van der Hoeven over Russians Alina Davletova-Anastasiya Ronzhina. Indonesian couple Marsheilla Gischa Islami-Ramadhani Hastiyanti Putri complete the semi final line-up after an convincing win over German girls Luise Heim-Yvonne Li.
The day ended with the semi finals fo the mixed doubles. Both matches went to three sets, as both Yonny Chung-Tsz Yau Ng from Hong Kong and the Dutch 2nd seeds Alex Vlaar-Cheryl Seinen turned their matches around after losing the first set to their German opponents. Yonny Chung-Tsz Yau Ng beat 5/8 seeded Max Weisskirchen-Eva Janssens 17-21, 21-17, 21-15 while 3rd seeded Alex Vlaar-Cheryl Seinen pleased the home crowd upsetting 2nd seeded Marvin Seidel-Jennifer Kanrott.
After an exciting day of play we are looking forward to a great (semi) finals day!
