Vietnamese players dominated Thursday's qualifying at the Hong Kong Open, and Friday's schedule points straight at a quarterfinal between two UPA Asia Trailblazers whose partnership made headlines earlier this year.
Thursday's qualifying results
Home favourites Venise Chan (HKG) and Ying Suet Lam (HKG) both won all-Hong Kong matches to reach the Women's Singles main draw. Men's Singles qualifying went almost entirely Vietnam's way, with Hoang Nam Ly, Le Xuan Duc and Hien Truong (all VIE) taking three of the four places; Zefeng Li (CHN) was the exception. The Bhatia brothers, Armaan and Aryaan (IND), both came through their Men's Doubles qualifying draws, which leaves a possible meeting as early as Sunday's semifinals.
Jimmy Liong (MAS) was already in the Men's Singles main draw. Syed Uzair Sufi (MAS) won his opening qualifying match 11-0, 11-3 before losing to Li in the qualifying quarterfinal.
Event | Qualified for the main draw |
|---|---|
Men's Singles | Hien Truong (VIE); Hoang Nam Ly (VIE); LE Xuan Duc (VIE); Zefeng Li (CHN) |
Women's Singles | Aiko Yoshitomi (JPN); Mihika Yadav (IND); Venise Chan (HKG); Ying Suet Lam (HKG) |
Men's Doubles | Ammol Ramchandani (IND) / Aryaan Bhatia (IND); Armaan Bhatia (IND) / Purav Raja (IND); Hien Truong (VIE) / Quan Do (USA); Nguyen Huy (VIE) / Hung Pham I (VIE) |
Women's Doubles | Simple Zhang (CHN) / Minju K (KOR) |
Mixed Doubles | Connie Lee (KOR) / Giang Trinh (VIE); Jolie Lam (VIE) / Hoang Nam Ly (VIE); Mihae Kwon (KOR) / Jack Foster (USA); Yu-Chieh Hsieh (TPE) / Thomas Yu (CHN) |
Friday order of play
Friday runs the Singles round of 16 and quarterfinals in the morning, then the Mixed Doubles round of 16 and quarterfinals. Local siblings Hong Kit Wong and Hong Yi Wong (HKG) open their Mixed Doubles campaign against Robert Stirling (AUS) and Aiko Yoshitomi (JPN).
The Women's Singles draw could deliver its biggest match early. Top seed Yufei Long (CHN) and Ting Chieh Wei (TPE) are projected to meet in the quarterfinals. The two Trailblazers reached the Women's Doubles semifinals together at the Orange County Cup before ending up on opposite sides of the net in Malaysia, where Wei beat Long in the Women's Doubles final. Men's Singles second seed Kenta Miyoshi (JPN) draws qualifier Hoang Nam Ly in his opening match.
What comes next
Saturday brings the Men's and Women's Doubles round of 16 and quarterfinals, plus the Mixed Doubles and Singles semifinals. Sunday is Championship Sunday.
Next on the tour
The tour moves to Japan for the Sansan Fukuoka Open, August 26 to 31. Full match schedules are on events.thepicklebase.com.