HK's mixed doubles table tennis pair into semi-finals

Hong Kong's table tennis pair of Doo Hoi-kem and Wong Chun-ting are one win away from a medal at the Paris Olympics, after advancing to the mixed doubles semi-finals. They defeated Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao of Spain 4-2 in the quarter-finals on Sunday at the South Paris Arena. The SAR pair dropped the first game 9-11, but they won the next two games 11-9 and 11-4. The fourth game saw a suspenseful back and forth with the Spanish team securing that game 12-10, but Doo and Wong fought back in the next game winning 11-2. The Hong Kong, China team ultimately took the win 11-8 in the last game. Reaching the final four is Hong Kong's best result in this event and Wong said they were glad to have made the breakthrough. "I believe I'm just excited like everyone else is. Because at the previous games we went out in the last eight, and now we've made a breakthrough to enter the semifinals," he told reporters post-game. "It was a very difficult match. We've lost to them before. This time we gained our revenge. Ah Doo performed very well on the table. I trusted her 120 percent." Doo added the Spaniards were the only top left-handed mixed doubles players they would face. They added while it's hard to train against left-handed players, they had worked on this in practice. The pair will be back at the table on Monday, when they next face North Korea's Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong at 10pm Hong Kong time. The North Koreans had defeated the world number two pair of Hina Hayata and Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan in an earlier round. _____________________________Last updated: 2024-07-29 HKT 00:55