(by Steve Hopkins)

Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin had 4-0 wins as all of the top seeds advanced in the first round of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Doha, Qatar.   Hugo Calderano and Tomokazu Harimoto each advanced with 4-1 wins.  And running through the rest of the World Top 10, Jingkun, Moregard, Jorgic, and both Lebruns all advanced as well.  *Xiang Peng is currently ranked No. 9, but he is not playing.

Iran continues to perform well on the biggest stages with both of their team members advancing:  Noshad Alamiyan defeated Ovidiu Ionescu 4-2 and 15 year old Benyamin Faraji (No. 163) defeated Yang Wang (No. 130) of the Slovak Republic 4-3.   England’s Tom Jarvis was one of the minor upsets on Saturday, defeating Benedek Olah.  There were also a number of near upsets – with Jang Woojin down 2-3 before coming back against Nicolas Burgos, and the same story for Borgar Haug who had a comeback win over Marcelo Aguirre.  One sad note for Ovtcharov fans, he was a walk-over today in his match with ongoing spinal disc issues – Daniel Habesohn advanced by default and moves on to face Kenji Matsudaira.

For American fans, Kanak Jha has moved in to the Round of 64 where he will face Eduard Ionescu on Monday.  Jha was one of four US men to qualify to play in Doha, but he is the only one of the four still playing.  Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador won his opening match over Hwan Bae.  Jha and Afanador are both in the same section of the draw – so if Jha defeats Ionesu and Afanador beats Darko Jorgic, the two could face off in the next round.

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