(by Steve Hopkins)
Tomokazu Harimoto took Men’s Singles and Satsuki Odo took Women’s Singles, as Japan was dominant at the WTT Contender Series event in Zagreb this week. Japan also won the Women’s Doubles event with Satsuki Odo teaming with Miwa Harimoto to win.
Tomokazu Harimoto worked through a tough draw. The first test was China’s Xu Yingbin, who had already won three matches earlier in the week just to qualify. Xu won the first two games before Harimoto found his stride – a comeback 3-2 win to start the tournament for the top seed. Harimoto had an easy 3-0 second round on Friday but then faced off against Togami – the player that eliminated him a week ago in Ljubijana. The scores were reversed this week, with Harimoto winning the first two games, and then holding off his recent nemesis for a tight 3-2 victory. In the Semifinals, Harimoto had little trouble with Simon Gauzy, winning 3-0. The same is true for the Final, where Harimoto and Chen Yuanyu had a close first game, but then Harimoto found a higher gear and cruised to a 4-0 win to claim the singles title. Runner-up Chen Yuanyu also had a solid showing. He entered the event as World No. 25 (and the 8th seed in the event), but the 19 year old upset Benedikt Duda (World No. 11) and An Jaehyun (World No. 17) on his way to the Final.
In Women’s Singles, Miwa Harimoto entered as the top seed, but lost her third match 3-1 to Miyu Nagasaki. The player that emerged from that half of the draw was 23 year old Shi Xunyao of China (World No. 15). The bottom half of the draw saw second seed Satsuki Odo win. There were four Chinese players who jockeyed for position to reach the Semifinal and Liu Weishan was the one that reached the Semis. Along the way, Liu defeated Shin Yubin 3-0, and Wang Xiaotong 3-1 – but Odo won their Semifinal 3-2 to reach the Final. And in the Final, it was Odo over Shi 4-2.
The Hong Kong duo of Wong Chun Ting and Chan Baldwin won Men’s Doubles. Japan’s Miwa Harimoto and Satsuki Odo won Women’s Doubles. Koreans Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin won Mixed Doubles.
The next major event scheduled is the United States Smash which starts July 3rd in Las Vegas. American fans will also see our stars playing between now and then, as the US Nationals just started in California.
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