(by Steve Hopkins)
The top players in the world converged this week in Singapore, and on Sunday only four remain. World No. 1 Wang Chuqin was dominant over Jang Woojin, winning 4-0. Chuqin will face World No. 6 Felix Lebrun who topped Lin Shidong (World No. 3) on Saturday. Shidong and Lebrun were evenly matched with four tight games split between the two – but the match was decided in games 3 and 4 where Lebrun dominated – leading to his 4-2 win.
In the bottom half of the draw, Lin Yun-Ju ended Patrick Franziska’s run. Franziska had logged two upsets in a row, a 3-2 win over Alexis Lebrun and a 3-2 win over Harimoto. But Franziska only managed one game, losing 4-1 to Yun-Ju on Saturday. After Calderano was upset on Friday, Moregard was the highest remaining seed in the lower half of the draw. Moregard started his Saturday match against Chen Yuanyu in dominant fashion, winning the first three games. However, momentum shifted with Yuanyu winning three in a row to even the score. In the end, Moregard dominated the final game for the 4-3 win. Moregard and Yun-Ju will face off on Sunday.
Sabine Winter is the biggest story in the Women’s Draw. After defeating USA’s Sally Moyland 3-1 and Fu Yu of Portugal 3-0, Winter went on a tear. She defeated Zhu Yuling (World No. 4) 3-1 and then Wang Yidi (World No. 7) 4-2. Her next opponent is World No. 2 Wang Manyu in the Semis. The other half of the Women’s Draw is pretty straight forward with two of the top seeds, Sun Yingsha (World No. 1) and Chen Yi (World No. 8) reaching the Semifinal. Chen Yi did have to defeat Chen Xingtong (World No. 3) in order to advance.
The Finals are set for Sunday afternoon.
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