Olympic mixed doubles bronze medalist He Hanbin advanced into the second round of men's doubles at the 11th Chinese National Games with his twin brother He Hanqing here on Wednesday
QINGDAO, East China, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Olympic mixed doubles bronze medalist He Hanbin advanced into the second round of men's doubles at the 11th Chinese National Games with his twin brother He Hanqing here on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old He, representing People's Liberation Army, paired up with his twin brother Hanqing to come from one game behind to beat Wang Wei and Yu Hao from Shanghai 16-21, 24-22, 21-17.
"My younger brother is a little bit inexperienced and made some ridiculous errors," said He Hanbin, who clinched the mixed doubles bronze medal with Yu Yang from Liaoning province in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
"Our training in provincial team is not that systematic as in the national team," echoed He Hanqing, who used to be a national team member but was sent back due to disciplinary problem.
"We are better than our rivals in terms of overall strength," added He Hanbin, who declined to elaborate on their goal in their men's doubles campaign.
World No. 2 women's singles player Zhou Mi, representing Hong Kong, took down Cheng Wen of Hunan 21-15, 19-21, 21-15. In the decider, Athens Olympic bronze medalist Zhou, who was born in Guangxi, led all the way before Cheng levelled the score at 8-8 and11-11. Zhou then never looked back to secure a 21-15 win.
"Though I am in my thirties, I still enjoy playing. I am not physically well recently so I will go back to Hong Kong for a medical check-up after the National Games," said Zhou.
In another women's singles duel, Wang Shixian of Jiangsu, world No. 42 and newly crowned in China masters in September, outplayed Rong Bo of Beijing 21-14, 21-11.
"Rong is not strong enough," said Wang. On her opponent in the second round, Wang said: "It could be Zhu Jingjing who plays for Guangdong." Zhu was the women's singles champion in the 2008 National championships.
"I have not played her recently so I have no idea if she is in good form," added Wang. Zhu was not on the list of women's team final, citing injury.
Chen Jin of Jiangsu, world No. 4 in men's singles, stumbled in his first round doubles tour. He paired up with Qiu Yanbo and lost to Chen Zhiben and Zhang Nan of Beijing 21-6, 21-10.
"They are obviously a better doubles pair," Chen commented on their rivals.
However, Chen Zhiben said: "Doubles is not their priority. They will pay more attention to their singles tour."
On Thursday, first and second rounds of men's singles, second round and quarterfinals of women's singles and mixed doubles as well as second round of men's and women's doubles will take place.