(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)

Top seed Simon Gauzy was upset early in the WTT Feeder Series event in Prishtina, Kosovo.  The other top seeds didn’t make out much better. Fourth seed Kay Stumper lost his first match as well, falling to Kazuhiro Yoshimura 3-2.  Third seeded Liao Cheng-Ting of Taipei won one match before losing 3-2 to Yuhi Sukai in the Round of 16.  And the longest lasting player in the top four was Feng Yi-Hsin who lost in the Quarterfinals.

Despite 13 players ranked in the Top 150, it was two players outside of the World 200 who made the Final – and just to keep everyone on their toes, it was the lower of those seeds who won.  Second place went to Elias Ranefur of Sweden.  Ranefur is World No. 209, a 28 year old right-handed attacker who has never been better than 143 in the World Rankings.  In this tournament, however, Ranefur was solid logging wins of 3-0, 3-1, 3-0, and 3-0 on his way to the Semifinals.  He then defeated Ryuusei Kawakami 3-2 in the Semis before falling to Kazuhiro Yoshimura 3-2 in the Final.

Kazuhiro Yoshimura entered the event ranked World No. 248.  He was one of the lowest seeds (7th from last) but that didn’t stop him from 6 matches in Kosovo.  All 6 wins were upsets including a win over Kay Stumper (World No. 69) and  Chang Yu-An (World No. 74).  A solid tournament from the 26 year old Japanese player.

In the Women’s event, second seeded Hitomi Sato defeated Camille Lutz 3-0.  The Japanese pair of Ryuusei Kawakami and Kazuki Yoshiyama won Men’s Doubles, Japan’s Hitomi Sato and Sakura Yokoi won Women’s Doubles, and Chile’s Gustavo Gomez and Daniela Ortega won Mixed Doubles.

The next WTT event is the WTT Contender Skopje that starts tomorrow in North Macedonia.  And of special note to American fans, the next major tour event is the United States Smash that starts on July 3rd in Las Vegas immediately after the US National Championships conclude in Ontario, California.

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