Breaking News – Last Day at the Hong Kong Junior/Cadet Open

(By Bruce Liu)
Breaking News – Last Day at the Hong Kong Junior/Cadet Open
Cadet Boys Singles
– Semifinals: Nikhil was on fire. He cruised through it to the final with a 3-nil win over the fourth seed LAU Chun Kit of Hong Kong.

– Final: Nikhil, as the fifth seed, has gone through 14th (HKG), 8th (HKG), 2nd (SGP), and 4th (HKG) seeds. His opponent in the final was the third seed Thiago Li of Portugal. Alas, Thiago proved to be a better player of the day. Nikhil lost a close first game with two game points and two quick games after that.

Cadet Girls Doubles:
– Semifinals: Sung sisters upset the 2nd seed pair from Taipei 3-1.

– Final: As a 6th seed, Joana and Rachel went through 9th (SGP), 4th (HKG), and 2nd seeds (TPE). Their opponents in the final were the 3rd seed, ODO Satsuki and SUGASAWA Yukari, from Japan. Sung’s started well winning the first game 15:13. However, Japanese turned the table in the next two games winning quickly at 6 and 3. In the fourth game, it seemed that Japanese would run away with the title with a 10:6 lead. However, Joanna and Rachel did not panic and mounted a humongous comeback winning the game 13:11! Dead even now. Both teams were on their toes now. Alas, it was the Japanese team prevailed at the end with a cliffhanging 14:12 win.

So, the tally is in – three medals, one Gold and two Silvers. Not bad at all.

The quality of the live streaming was great except there was no commentator at all. Multiple cameras were used. Love how they took the time to show spectators like most sports productions in the US. Lots of instant replays, too.

Congratulations to the players, parents, coaches, and clubs. All four components seem to work well together – at least at the junior level. As mentioned previously that US Juniors have been doing reasonably well. However, are there incentives for them to play professionally at adult stage? That will be the fifth component that we don’t see in the US – yet.