Ariel HSING, 16 years old from the United States of America won the Intercontinental Women's Cup on Friday 21st September 2012 in the Chinese city of Huangshi and thus booked her place amongst the elite in the VOLKSWAGEN Women's World Cup.
She beat Nigeria's Edem OFFIONG (10-12, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8, 11-13, 11-5), Brazil's Caroline KUMAHARA (15-13, 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7) and New Zealand's LI Chunli (11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 11-8) to become the youngest ever winner of the event.
A place in the principal stage of proceedings booked, where matters commence with four players in each of four groups, the first and second placed players progressing to the quarter-finals, there were two early casualties.
China's GUO Yue, the no.3 seed, was forced to withdraw owing to a neck injury; whilst in Group 'D'. Hong Kong's TIE Yana, the no.4 seed, suffered defeat at the hands of Austria's LIU Jia (11-9, 11-9, 11-1, 7-11, 11-6).
The withdrawal of GUO Yue from Group 'C' has opened the door, with Romania's Daniela DODEAN being the player to seize the advantage. Daniela DODEAN caused an upset by beating Korea's DANG Yeo Seo in her opening match (8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8).
Daniela DODEAN currently stands at no.39 on the Women's World Rankings, Daniela Dodean is at no.39. The one further member of the group, Singapore's YU Mengyu was not required to play owing to the withdrawal of GUO Yue.
Problems for the third and fourth seeds but there were no such problems for the top seeds, China's LIU Shiwen and Singapore's FENG Tianwei.
In Group 'A' LIU Shiwen beat Viktoria PAVLOVICH of Belarus (11-5, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3), whilst in Group 'B' FENG Tianwei defeated Hong Kong's JIANG Huajun (12-10, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6).
Meanwhile, also in Group 'B'; Germany's WU Jiaduo defeated Roman's Elizabeta SAMARA (11-3, 11-6. 11-3, 11-9) and in Group 'A', LI Jiao of the Netherlands overcame Ariel HSING (8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-1, 10-12, 11-5).
In the one remaining contest, in Group 'D', Spain's SHEN Yanfei beat Sweden's Matilda EKHOLM (11-3, 11-5, 11-13, 11-7, 11-5).
