(by Steve Hopkins)
Top seeded Hugo Calderano met stiff competition at the WTT Star Contender Series event in Ljubijana, Slovenia this week. Two of his three wins (in his 3-1 victory) over France’s Flavien Cotton were by the minimum 2 points in the Round of 32. Calderano then fought back from behind twice against Taipei’s Kao Cheng-Jui in the Round of 16. Calderano had an easier time over Tomislav Pucar in the Quarters, – winning 3-0 on his way to face Alexis Lebrun in the Semis. Alexis logged a series of solid wins, defeating Lim Jonghoon 3-1 and then blanketing Deni Kozul 4-0, before pulling out a narrow 3-2 win over Zhou Qihao.
In the bottom half of the draw, Dang Qiu was upset by Xue Fei in the Round of 32, leaving a relatively easy path for Felix Lebrun to reach the Semis. Felix Lebrun took out Chan Baldwin, Chen Yuanyu, and Sora Matsushima (3-0, 3-1, 3-1). Darko Jorgic emerged to face Felix in the Semifinal. Jorgic defeated Shunsuke Togami 3-2 in the Quarters. The other top seed to be upset was Tomokazu Harimoto who fell 3-2 to Togami. Togami has had great success against Harimoto – with an overall advantage in head-to-head while Harimoto has consistently performed better against other Top 25 opponents.
Semifinals and Finals will be played on Sunday.
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