In the early morning of April 12, Beijing time, the table tennis World Mixed Doubles Olympic Qualifying Tournament ended the first day of battle, in which the "Mysterious Division" North Korean team once again exerted its might, Lee Jung-sik/Kim Qin-young defeated the Spanish combination Robles/Xiao Yaoqian in 7 games and 2 points in the deciding game, and Huang Zhenting/Du Hoiqin of Hong Kong, China defeated Luca/Ni Xialian of Luxembourg 4-2 and was selected for the Olympic mixed doubles list with the North Korean pair.
According to the arrangement, the combination that lost on the first day will continue to participate in the battle on the second day, and there will still be two pairs of pairs who will get tickets to participate in the Paris Olympics, so Ni Xialian and others still have a chance! Please see below for the detailed battle situation.
This qualifying tournament is one of the channels for the birth of the mixed doubles quota places at the Olympics, but the stronger pairs such as Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha, Tomokazu Zhangmoto/Hina Hayata, and Lim Jong-hoon/Shin Yubin have not signed up for the tournament because they can be selected for the Olympics in other ways, so this opportunity is mainly reserved for the relatively low-level pairs.
According to the arrangement, the battle of the qualifying round will end in two days, and the schedule is very intensive, in which the first day is divided into two groups, and the first group of each group is selected for the Olympic Games, and the remaining combinations on the second day are divided into two groups again, and the first group is also selected.
The addition of North Korean players is a highlight of this qualifying tournament, this team has always been "the dragon sees the head but not the tail" in international competitions, so many people are unfamiliar with them, it is very easy to break the upset, this time Lee Jung-sik/Kim Qin-young all the way to the first group of finals, including 4-1 elimination of India's Ganasekaran/Batra.
In the final battle, Lee Jung-sik/Kim Jin-young scored 4-3 and deleted the two-point win to defeat Robles/Xiao Yaoqian (11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 13-15, 11-9, 13-11), and Lee Jung-sik roared excitedly on the court, looking happy.
The competition in the second group was also fierce, with Hong Kong's Huang Zhenting/To Hoi Kim, who had defeated Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen and Mizutani Hayabusa/Ito Misei in the final, met the 1983 World Table Tennis Championships mixed doubles champion Ni Xialian, but Ni Xialian was paired with Guo Yuehua on behalf of the national table tennis at the time, and now at the age of 60, she has long been naturalized in Luxembourg, and her partner has also been replaced by Luca, who is of average strength.
Although Luca/Ni Xialian played very tenaciously in this match, it was Huang Zhenting/Du Kaiqin who won 4-2 (11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9, 10-12, 13-11) to get their second Olympic ticket.
Next, Ni Xialian and others will continue to participate in the group stage on the second day, and look forward to the same exciting game on that day!