Day 4 of the Nationals was not perfect but the crowd would not be disappointed with all the enthralling mixed doubles and singles matches.
Mixed Doubles Set Amazing Start and Exciting Ending for Day 4
With 3 of the 8 spots secured, PLA dominated going into the mixed doubles quarterfinals but the field was levelled soon after. Facing last year's first runner-up Lin Gaoyuan / Wang Manyu in the quarterfinals Zhao Zhaoyan / Huang Fanzhen, a young pair representing PLA, gave it their all but was not quite there yet to upset last year's medalists and lost 4-2. Their compatriots Liang Jingkun / Zhu Yuling also had a tough fight against Zhou Qihao/Chen Xingtong. Liang Jingkun made quite some unforced errors in the match and the pair lost 4-2. The only victory for PLA came from Zhou Yu / Mu Zi. With better control in ball placement, they beat Xue Fei / Zhang Rui 4-2. Luck runs out for the dark horse of yesterday's match, Xia Yizheng / Che Xiaoxi lost 4-0 to Zheng Peifeng / Gu Yuting.
In the semifinals, Zhou Qihao / Chen Xingtong were strong in their counters, they won 4-1 over Zheng Peifeng / Gu Yuting. In the finals, they will be facing Lin Gaoyuan / Wang Manyu whose hope of improving on their second-place mixed doubles finishing from last year proceeds as they won 4-1 over Zhou Yu / Mu Zi.
Big Drama Concludes Singles Qualification
Liu Dingshuo and Sun Wen both fast and extremely powerful staged a magnificent singles match in the final round of qualification. For those who enjoy watching athletes playing speed and power that could almost crack the ball shall never skip this match. Liu Dingshuo took control in the first few games but things changed when the umpire penalized Liu Dingshuo in game 5 at 10-10 for delaying the match. Liu and his coach protested immediately, after some communications among the deputy chair umpire, umpire, coach and the athletes, Liu asked for changing his clothes. After a good few minutes of break both players continued the game and Sun Wen prevailed. Sun Wen levelled the game field in game 6 but, in the end, Liu Dingshuo defeated him in a 4-3 nailbiter.
There's no problem to penalize athletes when they violate the rules. The matter is both players had delayed the match to a certain degree, especially after long counter-loop rallies, by slowing down while picking up balls and before serving but only Liu received the penalty. More importantly, the penalty was not given at anytime but at a critical moment when Liu could have won the match if he won the deuce of that game. It remains very subjective to determine whether an athlete is actually delaying the game since the rules did not state the exact seconds allowed in between points. For most of the time, it is pretty much up to the umpire's instinct to decide whether or not give warnings or take points off from athletes, and these decisions can factor the results significantly. Therefore, seldom do we see umpire making such debated decisions at critical moments such as match points, game points and deuce. Perhaps rules modification and umpire training are needed to avoid controversial judgments during competitions which hinder the flow and the fairness of competitions. Do you think umpire should give penalty at critical moment? What can be done? Let us know in the comment box below.
Drama of day 4 action didn't stop there. Since a few top seeds of the singles events has withdrawn, the panel had some hiccups in filling up the vacancies in the main draw ceremony. Ideally according to the rules, the top seeds of the qualification round should fill up the spots of the withdrawn seeds and the 'lucky losers' should be drawn to play against the highest ranked seeds of the main draw, but the panel messed up both the women's singles draw and the men's singles draw. They then only fixed the former one and left the latter remained unchanged.
Anyways, all defenders competed in the final round make to the main draw and will continue challenge top seeds in the coming match days. Experienced defender Hou Yingchao will certainly be everyone's attention, let's see how far will he make after leaving the national team and the Chinese Nationals for so many years. Besides of the singles round of 16, the first champion of the Nationals will be decided in the mixed doubles finals, the concluding match of day 5. Stay tuned!
Catch Up:
Day 4 Morning Session
XD QF: Xia Yizheng / Che Xiaoxi vs Zheng Peifeng / Gu Yuting
XD QF: Liang Jingkun / Zhu Yuling vs Zhou Qihao / Chen Xingtong
XD QF: Zhao Zhaoyan / Huang Fanzhen vs Lin Gaoyun / Wang Manyu
XD QF: Xue Fei / Zhang Rui vs Zhou Yu / Mu Zi
Day 4 Afternoon Session
WS R4: Wang Yidi vs Fan Siqi
WS R4: Wu Yang vs Wang Xiaotong
WS R4: Liu Xi vs Zhang Qiang
MS R4: Niu Guankai vs Xue Fei
MS R4: Hou Yingchao vs Wei Shihao
Day 4 Evening Session
XD SF: Zheng Peifeng / Gu Yuting vs Zhou Qihao / Chen Xingtong
XD SF: Lin Gaoyuan / Wang Manyu vs Zhou Yu / Mu Zi
You may be interested in:
Draws & Results (live scoring)
Mixed Doubles
Men's Singles
Women's Singles
Men's Team
Women's Team
AND The 2019 Chinese Nationals Guide provides an overview of the competition format, schedule, how you can watch and links related to the Chinese Nationals, so you won't have to miss a thing if you can't watch it all.
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