Following opening day's untested victory against Myanmar, the 7th-seeded Hong Kong trio of Katherine Ip (ITF 814), Eudice Chong, and Venus Pang beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 earlier on Tuesday at the World Junior Tennis Competition 2009 Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Kuching to remain undefeated ahead of Wednesday's top of the group clash with No. 1 seeds Japan.

First up at No. 2 singles, Chinese Taipei's Lee Ya-Hsuan defeated Eudice Chong, 6-3, 6-1, to give her side the early lead before Katherine Ip beat opposing number Hsu Min-Chi, 6-3, 6-1, to restore parity. Eudice Chong and Katherine Ip then combined to beat Hsu Ching-Wen and Hsu Min-Chi, 6-3, 6-2, to seal the 2-1 win for Hong Kong.

The territory will wrap up the round robins with a final Group A encounter against top-seeded Japan on Wednesday. Both teams are sporting identical 2-0 records and therefore assured of a place in the knockout stage. However, even if results from the other groups pan out as anticipated according to seedings, it is still unclear with regards to a potential quarterfinal opponent since all teams (apart from the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds) will be drawn by lot at the end of Wednesday's play.

The only certainty is that Hong Kong and Japan will not face each other in the opening round of the knockouts. Other than that, luck of the draw could well turn out again to be an influential factor.

All seeded teams posted 3-0 victories on Day Two, with the exceptions being Hong Kong's 2-1 win over Taiwan, and No. 8 New Zealand, who became the first seeded side to lose a group match when they went down against Kazakhstan 2-1 earlier yesterday morning.

In Group B, No. 3 seeds Australia and No. 6 Thailand are joint-top with 2-0 records. With a place in the quarterfinals guaranteed, they are slated to face-off tomorrow to determine which team will enter the knockouts as Group winners.

New Zealand and Kazakhstan are tied with 1-1 records in Group D but the latter must be considered favourites to grab second place since their final group match opponents are Singapore, as opposed to the Kiwis who must now beat the Koreans to progress to the knockout stage.

Elsewhere, 4th-seeded Indonesia and No. 5 China are also deadlocked at the top with identical 2-0 records and they will go up against one another in the final Group C match on Wednesday.

The Chinese side, however, is almost impossible to assess on paper yet again. For according to ITF's online databank, Baseline, Yang Zhaoxuan (ITF 164) is the only under-14 player from China holding an ITF Junior World Ranking at present.

Yet Li Yi-Hong, Huang Jia-Lu, and Sun Zi-Yue are the three nominated players for Team China. The latter, who lost to Hong Kong's Katherine Ip, 6-4, 6-4, in the Week 2 final during the ITF 14 & Under Asian Championships – Group I earlier this year, eventually placed third overall behind top place-getter Katherine Ip and 2nd-placed Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia in Jakarta.

See ITF 14 & Under Asian Championships – Final Rankings

However, Sun Zi-Yue is officially designated only as China's No. 3 player here in Malaysia behind Li Yi-Hong at one and Huang Jia-Lu at two.

The highest ranked player in this year's qualifying is Korea's Jang Su-Jeong (ITF 261), followed by Japan's Miho Kowase (ITF 384), Oyaka Okuno (ITF 497), Aldila Sutjiadi (ITF 515), and Choi Ji-Hee (ITF 633).

Results
World Junior Tennis Competition 2009
Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying
Kuching, Malaysia
May 11-17, 2009

ROUND ROBINS (Group A)

Day One (May 11)

(7)HONG KONG defeated MYANMAR   3 – 0
R-1 Venus Pang (HKG) d. Lai Sharr Poe (MYA) 6-2 6-0
R-2 Katherine Ip (HKG) d. Nilar Win (MYA) 6-0 6-1
R-3 Katherine Ip/Eudice Chong (HKG) d. Wint Thazin Htike/Nilar Win (MYA) 6-2 6-1

Day Two (May 12)

(7)HONG KONG defeated CHINESE TAIPEI   2 – 1
R-1 Lee Ya-Hsuan (TPE) d. Eudice Chong (HKG) 6-3 6-1
R-2 Katherine Ip (HKG) d. Hsu Min-Chi (TPE) 6-3 6-1
R-3 Katherine Ip/Eudice Chong (HKG) d. Hsu Ching-Wen/Hsu Min-Chi (TPE) 6-3 6-2