On November 17, Beijing time, the 33rd Table Tennis Asian Cup ushered in the first match day. In the women's singles quarters final, the 2/4 district ushered in a close match, with Hong Kong table tennis sister Du Kaixuan against Chinese Taipei's Zheng Yijing. In this match, Du Kaixuan defeated Zheng Yijing 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals, finally breaking the curse of a round of swimming.
In this Asian Cup, the national table tennis did not send the strongest team to participate, the women's table tennis sent Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong, and the men's table tennis sent Wang Chuqin and Lin Gaoyuan. In the women's singles, with Wang Yidi and Hina Hayata in the top half, Chen Xingtong and Mimato Ito in the second half, it is widely believed that the champion will be produced between these four, who are also the top four seeds in the Asian Cup. In the opener, Wang Yidi won four consecutive games to easily advance to the quarterfinals. If you have to name one person who hopes to replace one of these four to reach the final four, then this person should be the fifth seed Du Kaixuan.
Du Kaixuan is ranked ninth in the world, and her most famous battle is in the WTT World Cup at the end of 2021, sweeping Wang Manyu 3-0, giving the Xinke World Table Tennis Championships women's singles champion a round of travel. But recently, Du Kaixuan has been in very bad form, and he has played all the rounds in the Macau Championship and the Xinxiang World Cup. In the Slovenian Challenge, he abstained due to the national table tennis participation in the national championships, and Du Kaixuan became the No. 1 seed. Originally thought that Du Kaixuan could win the championship, but did not want her to lose 1-3 in the first round to Ni Xialian, who was close to Huajia, and suffered one round in three consecutive matches.
Zheng Yijing is ranked 25th in the world, although the gap between the two sides in the ranking is somewhat large, but the strength is between Bozhong. In the past 11 meetings, Zheng Yijing has the upper hand with 6 wins and 5 losses. The technical characteristics of the two are very similar, and both have a strong backhand ability. The reason why Du Kaixuan was able to blow up the clean sheet Wang Manyu back then was to win in the backhand.
In the first game, Du Kaixuan showed excellent backhand holding ability in the opening period, and once took a three-point lead in the middle of the game. Although Zheng Yijing saved consecutive game points, Du Kaixuan withstood the pressure and went 11-9 to go first. In the second game, Zheng Yijing started very quickly, moving Du Kaixuan left and right and taking the lead. Du then took his position in the stalemate and pressed forward, and a wave of climax overtook the scoreline, 11-7 and then the next city.
In the third game, Zheng Yijing paid more attention to the connection between the two boards, and played the advantage of speed to take the lead in the middle game. After Du Kaixuan chased 8 draws, Zheng Yijing relied on balloons to get the game point. Under adversity, Du Kaixuan saved two game points to score four consecutive points, and made a 12-10 comeback. In the fourth game, Zheng Yijing, who had a backwater battle, immediately paused to adjust after losing points in the opening game, and then a wave of climax opened the point difference 11-5 to win the game.
In the fifth game, Du Kaixuan took the lead by producing high-quality returns in a backhand clash with Zheng Yijing. However, in the good situation, Du Kaixuan lost consecutive points in the second half of the game, losing another game 8-11, and the big score came to 3-2. In the sixth game, Du Kaixuan fell behind 4-8 and fell into adversity again. At the critical moment, Du Kaixuan was very decisive while ensuring the rate of play, scoring 6 consecutive points to get the match point. In the end, Du Kaixuan won the sixth set 11-9 and advanced to the quarterfinals 4-2.
In fact, throughout the draw of the Asian Cup, although the second seed and Misei Ito, who guarded the 4/4 district, has not been in good shape recently, Tian Zhixi, Li Haoqing and Ali have not threatened her. On the contrary, Hina Hayata returned from injury and may be upset. In this Asian Cup, Du Kaixuan finally broke the curse of three consecutive stops and one round. In the next match, if she plays well enough, she may hope to snatch a ticket to the semifinals from Hina Hayata and become a big dark horse in the Asian Cup.