The MB Hanoi Cup continued Thursday evening with quarterfinal action at My Dinh Indoor Athletics Arena in the Vietnam capital.

There were highly competitive contests all day long, as seven of the day’s 19 matches went to a deciding game.

One of the day’s most entertaining matches came from the men’s singles draw, where top-seeded Federico Staksrud defeated No. 6 seed Hong Kit “Jack” Wong by a 7-11, 11-6, 12-10 score line.

The humid conditions at the venue, coupled with the use of the JOOLA ball as opposed to the traditional LT Pro 48, made for a slower pace of play that allowed for some highly entertaining rallies.

“Jack is an amazing player, especially in these conditions,” Staksrud said afterwards. “The ball is slower, so he can drop and be aggressive. I love playing in these conditions. The adversity, the challenge is super fun. It was a fun battle, and it could have gone either way.”

The top seed will face Hien Truong with a spot in the final on the line.

In women’s doubles, Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright battled past No. 5 seeds Chao Yi “Zoey” Wang/Brooke Buckner 11-4, 9-11, 11-8.

The top seeds raced out to an 8-2 advantage in the deciding game before Wang/Buckner cut the lead to just one, but they were able to close out the match a few moments later after an hour on court.

“I felt like Game 2 was a little similar to Game 3 in that we had a big lead and [Zoey and Brooke] started coming back, so in the third game we were trying to not make the same mistakes we did in Game 2,” Waters mentioned. “Instead of maybe getting a little nervous or a little tight and playing defensively, we had to really play aggressive and get some energy going and really use the crowd.”

Here’s a look at the other quarterfinal bouts that went three games:

• MS: No. 4 Dylan Frazier def. No. 7 Eric Oncins 11-13, 11-8, 12-10.
• WD: No. 3 Tina Pisnik/Jessie Irvine def. Danni-Elle Townsend/Sahra Dennehy 11-9, 9-11, 11-2.
• MD: Jonathan Truong/Tama Shimabukuro def. Eunggwon Kim/Hong kit “Jack” Wong 5-11, 12-10, 11-5
• MXD: No. 3 Tyra Black/Gabe Tardio def. No. 7 Tina Pisnik/Dylan Frazier 6-11, 11-4, 11-5.
• MXD: No. 4 Kaitlyn Christian/Christian Alshon def. Jessie Irvine/Will Howells 11-13, 14-12, 11-8.

Action will continue Friday night with semifinal coverage beginning at 9pm ET on Pickleballtv.