(by Steve Hopkins)
Sora Matsushima and Yukiya Uda were both underdogs in the early (12:10 and 12:20) matches, but both came away with upset wins to start off an exciting Day 5 at the China Smash in Beijing. The first men’s match of the day was between World No. 5 Truls Moregard and World No. 33 Yukiya Uda. Uda came out on fire, he was the faster player, and while his default forehand attack is a rounder stroke the Truls – when he flattened the shot to finish the point his forehand power was electric. Uda won the first two games, and then the two traded games – a solid win for Uda to start the day.
The other match going at the same time was between Sora Matsushima and Liang Jingkun. Like the other match, the underdog logged the first win. In this match, however, it was a slugfest from there. Two big guys (both stocky in stature – though also both under 6 feet), pounding balls back as if they were trading punches. Jingkun won the second game, Matsushima won the third, Jingkun won the fourth, and then Matsushima sealed the win 3-2 (4, -9, 8, -8, 8).
The other minor upset of the day was 20 year old Chinese player Chen Junsong (World No. 113) over Japan’s Kazuki Hamada (World No. 78) in a 3-2 battle of underdogs. Both had already logged big upsets to reach this point with Junsong ousting Tomokazu Harimoto and Hamada navigating past Oh Junsung.
The Quarterfinal matchups are now set with Wang Chuqin facing Sora Matsushima, Hugo Calderano facing Xiang Peng, Felix Lebrun facing Chen Junsong, and Lin Shidong facing Yukiya Uda. Each of the four Quarters will have a Chinese player – a treat for the fans in Beijing. However, only two of those Chinese players will be favored to win as World No. 1 and No.2 continue to press forward – with the overarching story that Lin Shidong can retake World No. 1 if he can advance one level further than Wang Chuqin in these final three matches. The Quarters are split between Friday and Saturday.
Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long – we’ll have more updates soon.
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