The Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Asarel Bulgaria Open is down the final 8.  The knock out stages that were played on Thursday and Friday were not without drama.  The top seed, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, was eliminated by an unranked Chinese player named Zheng Piefeng.  Piefeng’s reverse penhold backhand was lighting fast and he stayed very close to the table pressing the pace.  The longer looping points often went to Ovtcharov, but Piefeng’s pace kept Ovtcharov off balance.  Piefeng over Ovtcharov 4-2.  Piefeng, who does not currently appear in the ITTF rankings at all, can expect a more favorable seeding for his next tournament.

The biggest upset of the Thursday was England’s Liam Pitchford over third seed Ma Long (World No. 7).   Ma Long started strong, winning the first game after leading throughout. The second game saw Pitchford jump out early -up 4-1 early.  However, Ma Long turned up the pressure  and closed out the second game as well (11-9).  Ma Long built a lead in the third game and seemed well on his wall to closing out the match, and the momentum suddenly changed.  Ma Long was up 8-5 and Pitchford leaned over the table with his forehand and flat hit a quick winner into Ma Long’s backhand. Pitchford then hit a strong backhand down the line beating Ma Long wide to his forehand.  Pitchford then turned it up a notch and attacked three consecutive backhands: the first a spinning banana flip off of Ma Long’s serve that was cross-court, then a driving ball into Ma Long’s middle, and then a winner down the line outside of Ma Long’s forehand.  The two then traded points to 12-12 before Pitchford won two in a row (an error by Ma Long sending a soft ball long, and a strong winner by Pitchford wide to Ma Long’s forehand).

Pitchford went on to win the second game to tie the match score.  Ma Long gained a slight advantage early in the third game and managed to maintain his lead throughout – winning the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead.  The two then played a tight sixth game with Pitchford again pulling out the win late (13-11).  And that then set up a high pressure seventh game.

That final game was a great start by Pitchford.  A Pitchford backhand winner down the middle, a Ma Long miss off of a flat Pitchford backhand, a low Pitchford flip caused a miss, a flat Pitchford backhand winner down the line, and a series of forehand counter loops that ended with a Ma Long miss – and they switched sides with Pitchford up 5-0.  They basically traded points from that point with scores of 6-1, and 7-2, before Ma Long finally mounted a small come-back (winning three in a row to make it 7-5).  But it was never closer than that – Pitchford closed out the match with an 11-6 win, eliminating the tournament’s third seed and advancing to the round of 16.

Pitchford’s great story ended there, however.  Another lesser known Chinese player, Ma Te (World No. 448) , eliminated Pitchford 4-1 and moved on to the Quarters.  Ma Te is a defensive anomaly at this level, as his chopping style is a real contrast to the two winged attackers normally found in these tour events.  However, at least on this day, Ma Te was too much for Pitchford, winning the first three games easily, and then ultimately winning the match 4-1.

Ma Te will face another unexpected quarterfinalist.  Austria’s Daniel Habesohn upset Jonathan Groth and Masataka Morizono in his first two knock-out rounds.  Habesohn is also ranked outside of the top 50 in the World, so whoever wins this match will be a Cinderella entrant into the semifinals.

Xu Xin, the second seed, will face Koki Niwa in one quarterfinal.  Host country’s Vladimir Samsonov will face Tomokazu Harimoto in a quarterfinal match.  And Zheng Peifeng will face Kenta Matsudaira in a quarterfinal match.

The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played on Saturday.  the finals will be on Sunday afternoon.

Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for more updates.

Piefeng v. Ovtcharov:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYwfpwap_Ag

Pitchford v. Ma Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeQf8JCpKiQ