(by Steve Hopkins)
The World No. 1 (Sora Matsushima) will face the sole remaining Chinese player (Zhou Qihao) in one Semifinal and Hugo Calderano will face Lin Yun-Ju in the other as the final day of the China Smash gets underway on Sunday.
The China Smash has been full of surprises from the start. Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong both withdrew – the each played lots of matches at the Asian Championships just a week before. That moved Felix Lebrun up to the No. 1 seed, but second seeded Sora Matsushima was announced as the new World No. 1 before his first match. Most of the top seeds made deep runs, but there were some notable surprises by way of early upsets: Feng Yi-Hsin topped Dang Qiu 3-0 in the opening round, Oh Junsung outlasted Shunsuke Togami for r 3-2 opening round upset, Jang Woojin defeated Alexis Lebrun in the Round of 16, and Zhou Qihao dominated the third seeded Tomokazu Harimoto 3-0 in the Round of 16.
Qihao has continued his great run by defeating Jang Woojin in the Quarterfinals and he will advance to face World No. 1 Matsushima on Sunday. Matsushima won 4-1 over Feng Yi-Hsin, though the 23 year old from Taipei kept that match close throughout. The other half of the draw gave fans a pair of Quarterfinal upsets. First, Calderano dropped the first game to Felix Lebrun 9-11 before winning four straight games by only 2 points (4-1: -9, 9, 10, 10, 9). Then Lin Yun-Ju and Truls Moregard put on their own show featuring tight games and long points – but Lin won all four games (4-0: 7, 9, 9, 7).
The women’s draw has gone a step further, and the final pairing is already set. Top seeded Wang Manyu has been dominant – with her latest step a 4-1 Semifinal win over Miwa Harimoto. Manyu’s opponent on Sunday will be Japan’s Hitomi Sato, the biggest story of the tournament. Sato had a marathon win over qualifier Zhu Sibing that matched two defenders where Sato won 4-1 but the match took 59 minutes. The following day, Sato started her Semifinal match with an 11-2 loss to Chen Xingtong before turning things around. Ultimately, Sato won the next 4 games to reach the Final with the 4-1 win. Sato is the first chopper to reach a Grand Smash Final – and fans can expect a longer match and lots of extended rallies.
It was a short week for the American players – as well as for Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and Canada’s Mo Zhang. USA’s Kanak Jha, Lily Zhang and Amy Wang were all seeded directly into the Main Draw, but each drew a tough opponent in the first round. For Kanak Jha, he lost 3-0 but can feel encouraged – his loss was to World No. 1 Matsushima, and two of his three games were lost 11-13. Like Jha, Amy Wang drew the top seed and she fell 0-3 to World No. 1 Wang Manyu. Lily Zhang fell 0-3 to Honoka Hashimoto – with Hashimoto making a run all the way to the Quarters. Adriana Diaz and Mo Zhang each lost in their first round matches as well – Diaz fell to Satsuki Odo 1-3 (Odo reached the Round of 16), and Mo Zhang drew Sato (who will play in the Final tomorrow). Tough draws across the board for the North Americans.
The Men’s Semifinals and both singles Finals will be played on Sunday. Wang Manyu will try to keep the women’s title in China against one of the most unusual finalist a Grand Smash has seen. On the men’s side, the winner will either be a solidifying step by new No. 1 Matsushima, the last Chinese player standing in Qihao in front of his home crowd, Calderano electrifying on another big stage, or Yun-Ju with his first Grand Smash title.
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