(by Steve Hopkins)
The first WTT Champions series event of the year ended in a flurry Sunday in Doha, with four of the final six matches going to the lower rated player. In Men’s Singles, the two upsets were both in the Semifinals. World No. 2 Lin Shidong lost to Jan Woojin 4-2. Woojin had a great tournament defeating Alexis Lebrun, Togami, and Moregard just to reach the Semifinal. Shidong won the opening game to take the early lead, but then it was three straight for Jang Woojin to establish a big lead – and he held on for the 4-1 win. The other half of the draw ended with an upset as well, with Tomokazu Harimoto falling behind 0-2, fighting back to lead 3-2, only to see Lin Yun-Ju dominate the final two games for the 4-3 win.
This set up a very unlikely Men’s Singles Final between World No. 13 Lin Yun-Ju and World No. 18 Jan Woojin (who were the 12th and 17th seeded players in the tournament, respectively). The Final turned out to be 4-0 (in favor of Lin Yun-Ju), but only the first game had any separation between the two players – with Lin Yun-Ju up by 4 points for most of that game. The second game was tied 8-8 before Lin Yun-Ju won 11-9, the third game was tied 8-8 before Lin Yun-Ju won 11-9, and in the final game it was again tied 8-8 with Lin Yun-Ju eventually winning 13-11. Woojin made the bigger swings, with massive power especially on the forehand side. For Yun-Ju, he was the complete player that the tour hasn’t seen in several years – big shots when they were open, great touch near the net, neat over-spin mid-rally points that totally changed the pace forcing position adjustments and movement. For a brief time in 2021, Lin Yun-Ju rose to No. 5 in the rankings – perhaps 2026 is going to be a big year for 24 year old seasoned pro from Taipei. In addition to the $40,000 USD purse, the winner also gets 1000 points – enough to move Lin Yun-Ju back into the World Top 10 in the next Rankings.
Germany’s Ying Han reached the Semifinal by upsetting World No. 2 Wang Manyu on Saturday. Ying Han fell 4-2 to the higher seeded Zhu Yuling of Macao on Sunday – and that was the only match on Sunday that did not end in an upset. The other half of the draw pitted two top Chinese players with Chen Xingtong dominating Kuai Man (in a minor upset of No. 4 over No. 3) to advance with a 4-0 win.
The Women’s Final was then a match-up of Zhu Yuling and Chen Xingtong. To date, Zhu Yuling (who used to play for the Chinese team before moving to Macao) holds the advantage, having won 4 of their 6 previous matches. Today’s match-up of styles went to the heavy spin, and tricky variation of Zhu Yuling as opposed to the raw power of Chen Xingtong. Momentum shifted several times. Xingtong won the opening game easily 11-5. In the next game, the two played even to the end before Zhu pulled ahead for the 13-11 win. The third game was not close – with Xingtong again winning easily 11-3. However, from there, it was all Zhu – winning 11-7, 11-8, and then 13-11 to secure the win.
The tour’s next event stays in Doha, with Lusail Sports Arena also playing host to a WTT Star Contender series event that starts on Tuesday. Lin Shidong, Hugo Calderano, Tomokazu Harimoto and today’s winner Lin Yun-Ju are all expected to compete.
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