Feng’s commanding victory in the final match ensures her team will not leave Round 4 win-less
JOHOR BAHRU – Having been the standout team in the first half of the season, Team Maze could well have ended Round 4 of the T2 Asia Pacific Table Tennis League (T2APAC) without a win.
At the purpose-built T2Cavern at Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios in Johor Bahru, Team JJ lead Team Fixture 23 all the way to the last of the six matches, when Feng Tianwei proved simply too strong for her opponent Jeon Jihee.
Aleksandr Shibaev rediscovered his winning form with a handsome victory over Vladimir Samsonov while Tomokazu Harimoto may well have learnt an important lesson -- that sometimes one may need to slow things down to break an opponent’s momentum or risk throwing away a handsome win.
Match 1: Timo Boll (GER) vs Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE)
Commented Jiang on Chuang’s play: “As I said before, he is such a good player. There’s speed and strength, I can watch him play all day.”
Match 2: Yang Haeun (KOR) vs Liu Fei (CHN)
Commented Liu on losing the second set: “She played very well today and made very few mistakes, especially in the second set.”
Match 3: Aleksandr Shibaev (RUS) vs Vladimir Samsonov (BEL)
Said Shibaev: “The most important thing for me today was my concentration, and to focus on every ball. I just thought about fighting because I hadn’t played well in the last two matches. I felt more angry for myself and that spurred me to fight harder.”
Match 4: Miyuu Kihara (JPN) vs Matilda Ekholm (SWE)
Said Ekholm: “It was a close from the start, I was really dis-coordinated from the way she played, it was not my rhythm at all and I’m happy I managed to get two sets.”
Match 5: Chen Chien-An (TPE) vs Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN)
Commented Harimoto on losing the final set: “I got a bit too excited there and made simple mistakes that let him back in. Having not player well the past two days, I am happy to be able to get back to winning ways.”
Match 6: Feng Tianwei (SGP) vs Jeon Jihee (KOR)
Said Feng: “I really wanted to win this for my team, and after losing the first set, I was even more determined to fight back in the following sets.”
Photo Credit T2APAC
Team Captains’ quotes:
“Today everybody played their normal level and it was good to have Shibaev back to his top form. Yang fought hard today and showed that Chinese players can be beaten. The team spirit today was great and we will continue to fight hard.” – Team Maze skipper Michael Maze
“We just lacked that little bit of luck today. This could well have ended in a draw, as we have done against Team Maze before. But I’m still happy with how the team played.” – Team JJ captain Jiang Jialiang
Quote of the day:
“Because I finally learnt how to receive some of her serves, so at least I could play for some of the point.” – Ekholm, when asked why she was able to build up a lead in the fourth game which she won to level the match score.
T2APAC
Round 4 Match Day 3
Team Fixture 23: Team Maze vs Team JJ
Team Maze | Team JJ | |||
Match 1 | Timo Boll (SWE) | 2 | Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE) | 3* |
Match 2 | Yang Haeun (KOR) | 1 | Liu Fei (CHN) | 3 |
Match 3 | Aleksandr Shibaev (RUS) | 4 | Vladimir Samsonov (BLR) | 1 |
Match 4 | Miyuu Kihara (JPN) | 2 | Matilda Ekholm (SWE) | 2 |
Match 5 | Chen Chien-An (TPE) | 2 | Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN) | 3 |
Match 6 | Feng Tianwei (SGP) | 4 | Jeon Jihee (KOR) | 1* |
Overall |
Team Maze
| 15 | Team JJ | 13 |