Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin landed men’s title and Dong Jie/Wang Fan captured women’s crown
Songkhla, Thailand, April 17, 2023 – China underlined its supremacy over the “Est Cola” AVC Beach Tour 22nd Samila Open on Monday, with Ha Likejiang/Wu Jiaxin smashing Pithak Tipjan/Poravid Taovato’s sweet dreams of winning on home soil to capture the men’s title and Dong Jie/Wang Fan dominating the women’s event following their comfortable win against Japanese Akiko Hasegawa and Yurika Sakaguchi in the final showdown.
Ha and Wu
Wang and Dong
It was the third consecutive title this year for the 30-year-old Ha and 29-year-old Wu, who had earlier captured the Beach Pro Tour Futures Mt Maunganui Beach in March 16, the first-ever world-level tournament hosted by New Zealand, and Beach Pro Tour Futures Coolangatta Beach in Australia in March 29.
Moreover, the Monday’s sensational 21-12, 22-20 victory over top seeds Pithak and Poravid was two in succession as the Chinese veterans, who started their first season together as teammates in 2018 for the World Tour five-star Fort Lauderdale event in the USA, had already proved stronger after 2-0 (21-9, 25-23) rout of the Thai counterparts at the Coolangatta Futures final match.
However, despite suffering another setback to the Chinese opponents, Thailand’s Pithak, 24, and Poravid, 21, captured heart of the host nation. Aside from winning gold medal at the Subic Bay Futures in the Philippines last December, they also powered past big names en route to the Monday’s showdown on Samila Beach including Chinese Li Zhuoxin/Liu Chuangyong in the quarterfinals and the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallists Pribadi Danangsyah/Ramadhan Gilang from Indonesia in the highly-anticipated semifinals.
Indonesians Danang/Gilang had to be content with bronze medal after demolishing Kiwis Bradley Fuller/Alani Nicklin 21-19, 21-18 in 36 minutes in the men’s third-place playoff match earlier.
In the women’s event, the 188cm-tall Wang Fan, 29, who teamed up with Xia Xinyi to grab gold medal for China at the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia, started her 2023 season with new partner Dong Jie.
Against Akiko and Yurika, silver medallists at the previous year’s AVC Beach Tour Samila Open here, the Chinese duo lived up to their expectations to pull off a convincing 21-16, 21-13 victory in 36 minutes, shattering the Japanese pairing’s high hopes of making one step better than last year.
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