China's Deadly Duo Stopped: East vs West Dream Match Set for Finals

Dec 5, 2011

Hangzhou, China - World #1 Siming Chen and her partner 2x World Cup winner Li Hewen turned out to be China's strongest team. They had landslide victories over Germany, Japan, and a 9-0 re-match against Japan again in the quarter-finals. But they would be tested against the defending champions from Philippines, Reyes and Amit. And vice-versa for the Filipinos.
In a match that had everything and leads changing back and forth, China led early on. They relinquished control of the match at 6-6 when Hewen had a chance to take back the lead but failed. But China took back the lead at 8-7 only to see a dry break give Efren and Rubilen a final chance which they took. At 8-8, a Amit safety led to an opening for the Philippines to runout. "Where did we go wrong to lose this match," said Li to Chen as they sat watching Philippines make the final 5 balls."
Efren was missing and you can hear on the microphones, which I'm sure they forgot about, he was swearing at himself humorously. Meanwhile, Rubilen was just telling him over and over "it will be ok, don't worry". It was really funny!", said Ish Caparras, part of Dragon Promotions Filipino team that was brought over to China.
Afterwards, Team USA's Jeanette Lee and Johnny Archer dismantled the very strong British Team of Allison Fisher and Craig Osborne. Though the match was close, USA played too well together and broke and ran many racks not giving much opportunities to England. The final score stood 9-6 in favor of USA. This set-up a East vs West confrontation the fans wanted to see. "With a European team, a USA team, a Filipino team, and a China team all in the final four, it was really too perfect for us. And having Asia against USA in the finals is a real bonus from a promoter perspective", said Cindy Lee, CEO of Dragon Promotions which produced the Taobao World Mixed Doubles.
England redeemed itself with the consolation of their 4th TV match, this time against China once more. Playing fluidly and confidently, Fisher and Osborne defeated Chen and Li 9-5 easily to claim the Bronze Medal for the event.