Taiwan battle past gritty Germany, China stamp their mark
THIRD seeds Taiwan had to huff and puff against European Championships' bronze medallist Germany yesterday before joining favourites China, Denmark and South Korea as the four teams making direct entries to the quarter-finals of the Uber Cup competition.
And they had the Huang sisters to thank for in a 4-1 win over Germany in a Group B tie at the Senayan Indoor Stadium.
Chia-chi and Chia-hsin won the successive second and third singles matches respectively to put Taiwan ahead after they had lost the first singles.
Taiwan suffered an early setback when Cheng Shao-chieh lost to China-born Xu Huaiwen, who moved to Germany four years ago – losing 4-11, 7-11.
But the 25-year-old Chia-chi drew Taiwan level with an 11-6, 11-1 win over world number 24 Juliane Schenk.
Inspired by her elder sister's victory, 19-year-old Chia-hsin staged an impressive comeback to down world number 24 Nicole Grether.
Chia-hsin lost the first game 2-11. But she overcame her error-prone starts to seal victory in the next two games at 11-3, 11-7.
Youngsters Chang Yun-ju-Yang Chia-chen also fought for more than an hour before clinching the winning point for Taiwan, beating Katrin Piotrowski-Schenk 11-15, 15-9, 15-11.
Unlike the Taiwanese, top seeds China and second seeds South Korea had no problem crusing to victories yesterday.
Other than world number three Zhou Mi, who dropped a game against Judith Meulendijks (11-5, 10-13, 11-5), it was smooth-sailing for the Chinese, who downed Holland 5-0.
China go into the quarter-finals as the Group A winners and will meet either Malaysia or Australia. Taiwan will meet either Japan or Canada in the same half of the draw.
The 2002 runners-up South Korea chalked up an easy 5-0 win over Uber Cup debutants Australia.
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