China’s 22 year old Li Xiaoxia and Korea’s 25 year old Seok Ha Jung were the players to raise the eyebrows in the top half of the draw in the Women’s Singles event at the Harmony China Open in Suzhou on Saturday 21st August 2010.

At the quarter-final stage of proceedings, Li Xiaoxia, the no.8 seed, overcame her compatriot and no.1 seed, Liu Shiwen after having beaten the in form Singaporean Wang Yuegu, the no.9 seed in the previous round. Meanwhile, Seok Ha Jung, seeded no.19, maintained the form of one day earlier when she had beaten seventh seed, Hong Kong’s Jiang Huajun, to end the hopes of Japan’s Sayaka Hirano, the no.12 seed in the third round. However, the progress of Seok Ha Jung was short lived; at the quarter-final stage she was beaten China’s Ding Ning the no.4 seed.

Familiar
The defeat for Liu Shiwen cannot be considered a major upset, they are members of the same team, they practise together; they are familiar with each other’s style.

However, prior to the contest, the odds were in favour of Liu Shiwen.

Li Xiaoxia had been hospitalised earlier in the year and for much of 2010, it has been a road to recovery; she has not replicated the form that took her to the silver medal place in 2007 at the Liebherr World Championships in Zagreb.

Good Form
Furthermore, Liu Shiwen appeared to be in good form in Suzhou, she had not surrendered on single game en route to the quarter-finals, earlier in the day she had beaten Korea’s Park Mi Young, the no.13 seed, in four straight games.

Equally, recent confrontations in world ranking events favoured Liu Shiwen.

Li Xiaoxia had succeeded in the first three encounters when they met in 2006 at the Croatian Open and in 2007 when they crossed swords at the Panasonic China Open and at the Swedish Open.

Age Consideration
However, age must be taken into consideration, in 2006 when the met in Croatia, Liu Shiwen was only 14 years old and when they met in China and Sweden she was 16 years of age.

Three defeats but more relevant, the next three encounters, the three most recent, saw a trilogy of success for Liu Shiwen.

In 2008 she won in Qatar and then in 2009 notably at the Harmony China Open and at the Volkswagen Women’s World Cup.

Predictable
At the semi-final stage Li Xiaoxia meets Ding Ning who overcame eleventh seed, Germany’s Wu Jiaduo in the third round before recording the quarter-final victory over Seok Hao Jung, a player against whom she has a fine record.

The pair had met on three previous occasions in world ranking events; Ding Ning had won on all three occasions.

Source: www.ittf.com

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