(by Steve Hopkins)
The WTT Contender Series in Muscat Oman finished late Saturday. In much of the Middle East, Sunday is the start of the workweek, so the Finals are played one day earlier than much of the rest of the World (where Finals are commonly on Sunday evenings).
Anton Kallberg fought his way through to the Semifinals (upsetting Harimoto along the way), but he fell to an even bigger underdog, Liam Pitchford. Pitchford’s headlining upset was over Lin Yun-Ju – and both Kallberg and Pitchford will be happy with the results. However, it was Pitchford winning their Semifinal matchup 3-1 to advance to face Hugo Calderano. And, despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead, Pitchford could not maintain his advantage, as Calderano ran off three wins in a row for the lead, and then the players traded wins in the final two games. Calderano takes the title 4-3.
In Women’s Singles, the top two seeds reached the final (and the top seed won). Those Finalists were Hina Hayata of Japan and Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz. And despite some solid performances in both of their Finals runs, the Hayata over Diaz Final was the expected result.
The other winners in Muscat were Patrick Franziska and Dimitrij Ovtcharov who teamed up to win Men’s Doubles, Hong Kong’s NG and Zhu who won Women’s Doubles, and Lin Yun-Ju and Chen Su-Yu who won Mixed Doubles.
The tour moves next to Turkey, where a WTT Contender event will be held in Antalya with Calderano, Ovtcharov, Jorgic, Moregard, and Felix Lebrun as the headliners.
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