After the elimination the day before of the ladies’ doubles Margot Lambert/Camille Pognante (Red Star Mulhouse), the two other Alsatians entered this week at the China Masters (Super 750 of the World Tour) in Shenzhen, the Strasbourg Alex Lanier in singles and the Mulhouse Thom Gicquel in mixed, reached the milestone of the first round this Wednesday. But both suffered and had to go through three sets to reach the round of 16.
Beaten from the start the previous week, also in three rounds, at the Japan Masters by the Chinese Li Shi Feng, 8e world champion, future winner of the double Olympic champion, the Dane Viktor Axelsen, and future winner of this Super 500, Alex Lanier, 16egot rid of an “old” acquaintance, the Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen, 9e. He thus restored parity in their confrontations, with two victories everywhere.
1h22 and 1h18 on the field
For the fourth time, the duel between the two men lasted more than an hour (1h22′), before turning to the advantage of Bas-Rhinois, victorious 21-17, 18-21, 21-13. The latter will meet this Thursday in the round of 16 a rival that he also knows perfectly, the Hong Konger Ng Ka Long Angus, 19eagainst whom he leads two successes to one and who for his part dismissed the other Frenchman Toma Junior Popov, 18e (21-17, 21-19).
For Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, now 17es after their final lost on Sunday in Japan, these round of 32 matches were not easy either. The European champions battled for 1h18 to get rid of a new Chinese pair, Zhou Zhi Hong and Bao Li Jing (13-21, 21-19, 21-17), after being led 10-14 in the deciding set . On Thursday, the Mulhousien and the Camblysienne will probably not have more fun against the Malaysians Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, 10esagainst whom they have so far lost two out of three times.
