(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld)
A week ago, there was a Chinese sweep in Doha. This week, the venue has moved across the Arabian Peninsula to Amman – but leaderboard looks very much the same as a week ago. Young Chinese players again to logged wins in every event at the WTT Feeder Amman. The Feeder events are for players not at the top of the World Rankings (often outside of the World Top 20) – so its a mix of established players who are regularly in this ranking band, and younger players who are rising in the World Rankings. For China, where their top players often dominate the top of the rankings, it is tough for younger players to accumulate ranking points. This event highlighted the quality of many of their young players – who are likely performing well above their respective rankings.
This week, the top seed was Lin Shidong (World No. 38), and he cruised easily to the Men’s Singles Final. However, it was 23 year old Cao Wei that took top prize – a 3-2 win over Shidong in the All-Chinese Final. The Women’s Singles event had fewer surprises as top seeded Kuai Man won.
Like last week in Doha – Chinese players took all of the other titles as well. Lin Shidong paired with Chen Yuanyu to win Men’s Doubles. Qin Yuxuan and Han Feier won Women’s Doubles. Lin Shidong and Kuai Man won Mixed Doubles.
The next WTT event on the calendar is in also in Amman – a part of the WTT Contender Series.
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