Wow, Wang Zhiyi, that was a cracker of a match she played with Akane Yamaguchi in R2 of the Denmark Open S750 event 2022 !!!
WZY literally pushing , stretching, trading blow for blow and matching her opponent point for point all the way from start to finish in a long-drawn, protracted struggle, in what appeared to be a war of attrition but, somewhat to my surprise, neither contestants looked fatigued as I expected AY not to be, but WZY too, to her credit. The match score, 15-21, 22-20 (after WZY saving 4 matchpoints ), and 23-25 (after WZY holding 2 matchpoints) to Akane, with little separating the two.
In the end, it was so near yet so far or a miss is as good as a mile for Wang Zhiyi, despite the fact that she had beaten AY before not long ago, this match is one of the best and hardest-fought I’ve seen in WS for quite some time. In my opinion, it reflects very well of WZY, and if it is any indication, I daresay, WZY has raised her game another level. Plaudits to WZY.
No doubt about it, a match that bodes well for WZY going forward.
Allow me to repost here what I wrote on the tournament thread:-
"Whoa, Wang ZY, on the brink of defeat, saved 4 matchpoints in G2, and then wins the deuces 22-20 to force the decider. That is fighting spirit. Not bad."
"Argh...so near yet so far, WZY held two matchpoints 20-18 and let AY escape, then in the deuce exchanges , ding-dong, ding-dong to finally drop it 23-25 to AY. Such a pity.
Still, it's an extraordinary battle of wills and a remarkably well-fought match."