2024-07-28 17:22:25
Gabriela and Stephanie Stoevi came close to a big win over China’s powerhouses Liu Shen Shu and Tan Ning in their second match of the Olympic Badminton Tournament at the Paris Games. The Bulgarian women led the game 1:0, but the Asian women achieved a dramatic turnaround and won 2:1 (19:21, 21:10, 21:16).
Gabriela and Stephanie still have an excellent chance of reaching the Olympic quarter-finals for the first time in their third appearance, after knocking out the Hong Kong women’s pair in the first round. To do so, they need a win in the third match in the group, save for sisters Annie Xu and Kerry Xu from the USA.
Against the Chinese Shu and Ning, Gabriela and Stephanie showed their great potential and character.
In the first game Stoevi trailed 7:11 at the break, but in the middle of it they made a turnaround. They led 18:15, but the Chinese equalized. After two fantastic plays, Gabriella and Stephanie reached gamepoint at 20:18. From the second attempt, they took the game at 19.
The break in the second half came at 7:11. In fact, after 7 ties, the Chinese scored 8 points in a row for 15:7 in their favor. After a new strong streak, they won the game by 10 points and equalized – 1:1.
In the third game, the Bulgarian women were losing 3:6, but they turned it around to 8:6 and deserved a lot of applause with their game. The Chinese still led at the break with 11:10. A grueling play at 12:11 for the Chinese turned out to be decisive for the game and the match. The Asian women won the point for 13:11 instead of reaching a tie, and then built up a good lead and won with 21:16. Even the won game against the favorites and the even greater belief after the performance give greater chances to reach quarter final.
17-year-old Kaloyana Nalbantova was defeated 2:0 by world champion and 2023 women’s number one Ahn Se-jung (Korea). Kaloyana behaved with dignity in her Olympic debut. By the break in the first game, he was trailing by only one point – 10:11. Immediately after that, the best in the world realized three points in a row. Nalbantova got back to 13:14, but then the Korean once again showed dominance and eventually won the game 21:15. The dominance continued in the second, in which Kaloyana recorded 11 points.
It is interesting that the two “Bulgarian” matches started almost at the same time – so Nalbantova and the Stoevi sisters played for a while on two adjacent courts out of the three in the Porte de la Chapelle arena in Paris.