Doo and Ng claim first Grand Smash doubles silver
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago4 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong's Doo Hoi-kem (杜凱琹) and Ng Wing-lam (吳詠琳) reached their first WTT Grand Smash women's doubles final in Sweden and took silver after a 3-1 defeat to Japan's world No. 2 pair Miwa Harimoto and Hina Hayata. The sixth-seeded Hong Kong duo, who have been playing together for about eight months, pushed the Japanese pair for 40 minutes before losing 6-11, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11
Key Points
- Doo and Ng, ranked world No. 14 in women's doubles, earned their first Grand Smash runners-up finish after only around eight months as a pairing
- In Saturday's final in Sweden, they lost 1-3 to Harimoto and Hayata, with the four games ending 6-11, 11-9, 11-13 and 9-11
- The Hong Kong pair started from the round of 16 as the No. 6 seeds and beat Sweden's Nomin Baasan and Agnes Svensson 3-0
- They then upset China's world No. 1 pair Wang Manyu and Kuai Man 3-2 in the quarter-finals, before another 3-2 win over South Korea's Shin Yu-bin and Zhu Qianxi in the semi-finals
- Head coach Li Ching said the pair had worked together for only a little over half a year, but technical adjustments had improved their movement and he expected further progress
Why It Matters
The silver medal gives Hong Kong a timely boost ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in September, with the new pairing already producing results at elite level. It also added to Doo's second silver of the tournament and contributed to Hong Kong placing three pairs into finals in Sweden, which Li said carried positive meaning for the whole team