OLOMOUC, Czech Republic, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese paddlers Feng Yalan and Chen Xingtong will meet each other in the women's singles semifinals of the ITTF Czech Open.
Defeats of Chinese players Liu Weishan and He Zhuojia earlier in the day put some pressure on Feng, but the 29-year-old veteran rose to beat South Korea's Jeon Jihee, a 26-year-old Olympian born in China, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11 here on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Feng had several opportunities to take a decisive sixth game, but Jeon tested her, pushing back and making things tough before ultimately capitulating.
"I think my biggest advantage was power," Feng said after the match. "Jeon had no weapon to deal with it as she is a more technical player. But it was not easy in the sixth game. I was losing quite a lot, but luckily I turned it around."
"I was a bit hurried actually. She kept attacking me in the first three shots, which made me feel a bit anxious," she added. "I tried to keep calm."
In another quarterfinal match, it took only 32 minutes for Chen to ease past Austrian player Sofia Polcanova 11-7, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8.
"She is very tall and the European player is quite different from the Asian ones, but I think I made the moves better," said Chen. "Now I'm very much looking forward to the semifinal tomorrow against my teammate Feng. I'll enjoy the match."
