Euro Individuals Quarterfinals – Pi Justifies No. 1 Ranking

Pi Hongyan (pictured) of France advanced to tomorrow’s semi-final at the European individual championships in Manchester after a hard-fought three-game battle over the powerful Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria and in doing so justified her billing as top seed in the women’s singles draw.

Images, article and video by Mark Phelan (Live in Manchester)

Hongyan’s match against the hard-hitting Bulgarian was always going to be a potential banana skin for the European number 1 and after taking the opening set 21-15 she suffered a lapse in concentration as Nedelcheva fought back to level the match with a 21-14 win in the second.

With all to play for in the deciding rubber the French number 1 had to call on all her years of experience to advance and proved her status as number 1 seed by completely dominating the deciding set as she led from start to finish in a 21-12 win.

The other side of the draw sees All England heroine Tine Rasmussen take on Ella Diehl as the tall Dane brushed aside the challenge of Susan Eglestaff in just 26 minutes. Diehl  was ultra impressive in her victory of fellow veteran Yao Jie of the Netherlands and is visually full of confidence and will fancy her chances in going the whole way to gold now that she has achieved at least a bronze medal, which is remarkably her first ever in the European championships.