USA won their second come-from-behind tie in two days, beating Thailand to top Group H and take their place in the quarterfinals of the BWF World Mixed Team Championships 2024.
Thailand had the lead going into the penultimate match, but USA’s Ella Lin, who was the standout player in their tie against Philippines yesterday, once again stepped up. Lin outplayed Yataweemin Ketklieng 14 points to 6, giving the USA men’s doubles pair of Weslie Chen/Kyle Wang a five-point advantage at 99-94 going into the last match.
To their credit, Chen and Wang stayed calm through the tense final stretch to help USA breast the tape at 110-107 and a place in the last eight.
“There was pressure in the last match, but we’ve been playing for a long time; I trust him with my life,” said Kyle Wang. “It was intense and exciting as it came to the wire. I do think we can go all the way.”
“We were just telling ourselves to trust ourselves,” added his partner. “We knew we could do it. The energy with our team, we were ready for anything. It means a lot to beat Thailand. This is my first World Juniors, and being part of this team is exciting, and to beat Thailand — we lost to them last year — it’s like revenge.”
Chinese Taipei Hold Off France
Chinese Taipei’s Su Wei-Cheng
Another tie that went down the wire was Chinese Taipei against France.
France led through the first five matches and were in the reckoning as they went into the final men’s singles just six points behind, but Su Wei-Cheng kept his distance over Arthur Tatranov to hand Chinese Taipei the win at 110-105.
In Group E, an upset seemed on the cards with Turkey running India close. Turkey’s men’s singles spearhead Mehmet Can Toremis inspired his team to 63-66 by the end of the sixth match, but India eventually pulled ahead, 110-99.
China Rout Korea
Favourites China served notice of their capabilities in their first big test of the championships, decimating three-time champions Korea 110-69 in Group A.
With the relay scoring system in operation, there was some curiosity on how China would fare, but the home team was on the button from the start, winning their first match 11-2, and never relinquishing control.
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