Day one review: Glamorous night at the ITTF Star Awards; World Tour Grand Finals kicks off

December 9, 2016

(by Neha Aggarwal)
Glamorous night at the ITTF Star Awards; World Tour Grand Finals
Day one at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals concluded with some thrilling round of 16 matches in the men’s and women’s section during the day. The highlight of the day was the ITTF Star Awards where the most accomplished table tennis stars were honored.

The day kicked off with some electrifying matches in the round of 16 in both men’s and women’s singles. The number 2 seed, Kasumi Ishikawa survived a scare from Suh Hyowon (KOR), the number 15th seed in match contested in full seven games (11-8, 11-2, 9-11, 4-11,8-11,11-6, 5-11). Similarly, Tie Yana (HKG) narrowly escaped from the hands of Yuka Ishigaki (JPN) in match that went on till the end- (9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6,6-11,11-7), 11-4. Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling had an easy day as they both won their matches 4-0 thus moving to the quarter finals.

In the men’s side, Jeoung Youngsik (KOR) caused the biggest upset of the day as he knocked out Japan’s Jun Mizutani, the reigning Olympic bronze medalist in a nail biting thriller (7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-8,11-13,11-7, 11-9). On the other side, Yuto Muramatsu (JPN) beat the legendary Vladimir Samsonov (BLR) in a similar fashion, (11-5, 11-7, 5-11, 6-11,1-11,11-9, 11-6).

The thrill of table tennis converted into glamour at the red carpet as the evening unfolded with the ITTF Star Awards. The athletes took the red carpet with glitter, the evening was also a toast to the 90 years of ITTF. Ma Long and Ding Ning were awarded the ITTF Male and Female Table Tennis Stars.

To know more about the matches and the Star Awards watch the video below: