Shibaev: fine win
Russia’s 20-year-old Alexander Shibaev and Korea’s 17-year-old Kang Mi Soon won the Under-21 Men’s and Under 21 Women’s Singles titles at the Qatar Open in Doha yesterday.
Both accounted for Japanese adversaries in the final. Alexander Shibaev defeated 16-year-old Koki Niwa 3-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, whilst Kang Mi Soon beat Miski Morizono.
Both were hard fought contests with Shibaev needing the full seven games to beat Koki Niwa; whilst Kang Mi Soon needed five games to end the hopes Morizono 13-11, 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8.
3-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5 before Kang Mi Soon overcame Misaki Morizono he had to beat two former World Junior Champions in order to reach the final.
He started his main draw campaign by beating Singapore’s Ma Liang to book a quarter-final place where he defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An, the 2009 World Junior champion, before ousting Korea’ Jeong Sang Eun, the 2008 Worlf Junior Champion.
The wins booked Shibaev a place in the final.Meanwhile, China underlined its prowess in the third round of the Women’s Singles event. Six players from the country entered the arena, and all of them won their matches.
Comprehensive straight games wins were the order of the day for Ding Ning, Li Xiaoxia and Guo Yue; for Liu Shiwen, she needed five games whilst for Guo Yan, and especially Feng Yalan; life was tougher.
 Feng Yalan needed a full seven games (5-11, 4-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7) to beat Japan’s Ai Fukuhara. Feng is 11th seeded spot as opposed to Fukuhara at no.8.The fast attacks from the backhand of Fukuhara caused Feng problems. She was given minimal time to react; however, gradually her powerful topspin attacking play from both backhand and forehand paid dividends.
Equally, Guo Yan found Korea’s Seok Ha Jung a difficult adversary; the Korean being very comfortable against the attacking style of play expounded by Guo Yan.