Serbia extended their winning streak in the President's Cup at North Macedonia and secured the second spot in the group with a win against Algeria, 27:16, just enough to progress to the Placement Matches 21-24. The Chinese Taipei recorded their biggest win in history at the world flagship competition by beating Mexico 44:16, after previously beating Algeria 28:18 at the 2008 IHF Women's Junior World Handball Championship also played in North Macedonia.

PRESIDENT’S CUP
GROUP II
Mexico vs Chinese Taipei 16:44 (8:17)

The Chinese Taipei showed improvement since the start of the competition and on Tuesday, they finally welcomed their first win after outplaying Mexico.

The Asian team were the dominant side from the first minute, opening the match with a 2:0 run. Mexico were trying their best, but with only line player Ximena Campos Canales being able to find a way to the opponent's goal, they could not keep the rhythm. Their attacks lacked power and Chinese Taipei's goalkeeper Hsin Yun Wu was reading them like a book. She closed the first half with an astonishing 10 saves out of 15 attempts, for a 66% saving efficiency.

On the other side, the Mexican defence could not stop the Asian side's attack, led by Yig Chi Lee and Ya Ting Chang. The two back players helped the lead morph into 18:7 at the break. Mexico had the spirit but they could not transfer it to their game. Mistakes hampered any chance to close the gap, leaving them on a 33% attack efficiency and nine goals behind.

The second half was all about Chinese Taipei. They thoroughly dominated every aspect of the game using a 6:0 unanswered run and moments later 10 straight goals. In the span of those 14 minutes, Mexico managed to score only three times.

Six of the Chinese Taipei's players scored at least five goals, as right back Ya Ting Chang led the squad with seven goals and goalkeeper Hsin Yun Wu remained above 55% save efficiency. Line player Ximena Campos Canales remained Mexico's top scorer with four goals while Denisse Mata Carrasco added three.

After missing out on playing the IHF Women's Junior World Handball Championship for 16 years, Chinese Taipei will fight in Placement Matches 25-28 but they cannot avoid the worst placement in five editions, but will be favoured against Uzbekistan. Mexico will at least try to trump their 2022 placement when they finished last and will try to beat the United States of America on the first stop of that road.

Alkaloid Player of the Match: Ying Chi Lee (Chinese Taipei)

GROUP III
Algeria vs Serbia 16:27 (9:11)

After a slow start, Serbia stepped up a gear and lived up to their billing thus booked the second spot in the group.

Algeria shocked Serbia at the start of the clash, opening their account with four straight goals. A plethora of turnovers was Serbia's undoing and only thanks to their goalkeeper Teodora Vranic they did not fall behind even worse

It took nine minutes for the European team to score their first of the day when Dunja Radević netted and it seemed that goal started their engines going. In under then four minutes, Serbia levelled and in the 16th minute Tamara Mandić grabbed their first lead in the game (4:5).

Serbia's biggest lead in the first 30 minutes was by three goals, but Algeria never faltered and were keeping the close gap despite head coach Slavko Krnjajac's attempts to break Algeria's game with a shifting defence from 6-0 to 5-1 and even at times 3-2-1.

The pivotal moment of the match happened between the 38th and 42nd minute. Algeria's aggressive defence led to two suspensions and Serbia took the most out of it, making a six-goal run. After 10 minutes without a goal, Warda Radja, who just got into the game, scored her first and gave Algeria more room to breathe but it was merely transitory.

The new set of mistakes and poor ball handling left Algeria with only three goals scored until the final buzzer while Serbia had the privilege of using almost all players in the squad, locking in the 27:16 win.

Left wing Nataša Ćetković was Serbia's top scorer with seven goals while Alkaloid Player of the Match, Serbia goalkeeper Teodora Vranic, saved 16 Algerian attacks from 32 attempts. The African goalkeeper was not far behind with 14 saves and line player Lyna Yelles provided four goals.

Serbia secured Placement Matches 21-24 where they will first meet with Tunisia. Algeria continue in Placement Matches 29-32 where they will face off against Chile.

Alkaloid Player of the Match: Teodora Vranic (Serbia)