DM Monitoring
MAGDEBURGL: China’s Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen claimed the title by beating down Ito Mima/Mizutani Jun from Japan 3-1 here on Saturday in the mixed doubles final at ITTF German Open.
In the match between the Asian veteran pairs, Xu/Liu pulled off the first game 12-10, despite being down 9-10. The lead doubled for Xu/Liu, as they won the second game 13-11 in 10 minutes. The top Japanese mixed doubles duo hit back in the third game, winning 11-7.
In the supreme display of their tandem, Xu and Liu kept up their barrage of shots on their opponents, not giving them any room to work with at all and winning the first gold medal here in Germany 12-10, 13-11, 7-11, 11-7.
With the victory though, the Chinese pair seemed not to be satisfied with their performance. “I had some mistakes in responding the serves and did not take control the pace of the games,” said Liu, “sometimes I was a bit hesitated but not stable enough at the table.”
“We did win the game but not in an easy way,” said Xu, “we’re a bit nervous in the first world tournament this season. We could have done some details better under the pressure.”
Meanwhile, China’s pair Chen Meng/Wang Manyu needed four games to see off Japan’s Hirano Miu/Ishikawa Kasumi 3-1 in the final to claim the women’s doubles title here on Saturday at ITTF German Open.
It was a balanced start for the final here in Magdeburg with the scores sitting level at 1-1 after the opening two games. But it’s a relatively convincing win for the top seed Chen/Wang who became the champion at last 3-1 (11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8).
“The match was not that easy and we also met a lot of difficulties. I do think we are working better and better together as a team. Manyu had a great performance today, which helped me a lot to get the victory.” Chen said.
South Korean duo Cho Daeseong/Jang Woojin clinched the men’s doubles title by defeating the Chinese pair Lin Gaoyuan/Ma Long.
With the opening game of the men’s doubles final going to Chinese side by the narrowest of margin (12-10), Cho/Jang responded with the close win in the following game (15-13) to pull level.
Saving the total of five game points in game three and then two in game four, Lin/Ma couldn’t prevent the opponents from forcing a decider. The South Korean qualifiers took the final victory 3-2 (10-12, 15-13, 12-14, 14-12, 11-6).
