(By Steve Hopkins)
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Update
MEN’S EVENTS
A lot of big names were present in the Round of 16 yesterday at the Commonwealth Games being held in Australia this year. The winners were England’s Liam Pitchford and Sam Walker, Canada’s Eugene Wang, Singapore’s Gao Ning, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna, and all three of India’s entries (Sharath Achanta, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Harmeet Desai.
Today, these remaining stars battled in the Quarterfinals. Quadri Aruna won his match easily – dominating Desai 4-0. Liam Pitchford fell 4-2 to Sharath Achanta in a nail-biter (9, -11, 10, -9, -7, -9). Eugene Wang came out swinging against Ning Gao, but after winning the first game he fell short (12, -6, -5, -6). And in the only real upset of the day, England’s Sam Walker (World No. 96) won four straight close games over World No. 41 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (8, 8, 11, 15).
(Photo courtesy of ITTF)
The Semifinals match Aruna v. Achanta and Ning v. Walker. The finals will be played on Sunday.
Team England and Team India will face each other in the Men’s Doubles championship tomorrow as well. Drinkhall and Pitchford team up for Team England and Achanta and Gnanasekaran are Team India.
The Men’s Team Event Finals were last Monday. India took top honors, with Nigeria taking the Silver and England taking the Bronze.
WOMEN’S EVENTS
Canada’s Alicia Cote won twice before falling to Kelly Sibley (England) in the Round of 32. Teammate Mo Zhang has carried the Canadian banner all the way to the Semifinals. Zhang defeated Denise Payet (England) 4-0 in the Round of 16, and defeated Jian Fang Lay (Australia) in the Quarterfinals (4-0).
Tomorrow’s Semifinals will be Tianwei Feng (Singapore) v. Manika Batra (India) and Mengyu Yu (Singapore) v. Mo Zhang (Canada). The Finals will be played later in the afternoon.
The Women’s Team event finished with India taking the Gold, Singapore taking the Silver, and England taking the Bronze.
Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for additional updates and news.
