Beiwen Zhang Reaches Round of 16 at Paris 2024
- July 31, 2024
- 3:42 am
Group Play finished on Wednesday, July 31 on a rainy Paris day at Arena Porte de la Chapelle as the competition entered Day 5 of the event. Women’s Singles athlete Beiwen Zhang entered the day as the final U.S. athlete to finish up Group Play and needed a win against Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen to get out of Group K. Zhang and Nguyen last met at the Finland 2023 Arctic Open, where Zhang narrowly lost in three games (21-17, 12-21, 22-24) against the Vietnamese athlete.
The U.S. athlete was strong out of the gate, driving back Nguyen with well-placed attacks, and leading at the interval 11-7 with a smash into her opponent’s body. Out of the interval, Zhang continued to maintain her lead, pulling to 15-9 with a mix of power and control. Nguyen battled back the next few points to pull the score to 15-13 but Zhang regained the momentum as she dived to save a shot that deflected off the net and was able to recover to finish out the point.
A series of good rallies by the Vietnamese player tied the game at 17-17. The American athlete powered through the next two points with strong straight smashes to pull ahead, 19-17, but again Nguyen managed to come back to tie the score at 19-19.
Nguyen pulled ahead briefly with a smash down Zhang’s right-side tramline that was unsuccessfully challenged by the American but Zhang quickly battled back to tie the game at 20-20 and then swiftly won with a strong smash down Nguyen’s forehand side and then another strong smash down the center of the court to win 22-20.
The start of the second game was a rough start for Zhang following several shots into the net as the Vietnamese player pulled to an early lead. Down 3-6, Zhang earned four straight points as she forced a series of mistakes from Nguyen to come up with a 7-6 lead. Zhang would lead going into the interval 11-8, earning the point with a strong smash towards Nguyen’s right hip that the Vietnamese player returned wide and out.
The pair would continue to trade points in a series of intense rallies with Zhang pulling the lead to 15-11. Nguyen made up a few points and at 18-15, caught Zhang by surprise with a shot that sent the American diving and missing to bring the score to 18-16. From there, Nguyen battled back to tie the game again at 18-18.
Although Zhang earned the next two points with well-placed shots that forced long returns out of the backline by the Vietnamese athlete, Nguyen again came back to tie the game at 20-20. Just as in the first game, Zhang leaned heavily into the attack and strong smashes in the next two rallies carried her to a 22-20 win in the game, and a 2-0 victory for the 46-minute match.
Beiwen Zhang makes it out of Group Play with a 2-0 record in Group K with wins against Australia’s Tiffany Ho (21-9, 21-4) and Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen (22-20, 22-20). She will await her bracket assignment for the knockout phase of the competition.
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