(by Steve Hopkins)
Truls Moregard was the first of the top three seeds to fall, losing 1-3 to Wen Ruibo – a 19-year-old Chinese player who has already been a Finalist in WTT events twice on his way to his World No. 27 ranking. Ruibo went on to take out World No. 12 Dang Qiu in the next round, and is set to face Tomokazu Harimoto on Sunday. The other Saturday match in the lower half of the draw was the only Quarterfinal that didn’t end in an upset – that was World No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto over World No. 7 Lin Yun-Ju.
The biggest upset of Saturday was Japan’s Sora Matsushima who defeated World No. 1 Wang Chuqin 4-2. Matsushima fell behind early, but won three in a row before splitting the final two games. None of the games was won by more than 3 points – so despite the 4-2 win, it was tight. The match between Hugo Calderano and Felix Lebrun was even tighter – not only was it decided a game later (4-3 after a long seventh game), but five of those seven games were longer than regulation. Felix Lebrun upsets Calderano 4-3 ( -10, 9, -10, -10, 8, 11, 11).
Without the top three seeds, Harimoto is the highest remaining seed. He’ll face Wen Ruibo on Sunday. The other Semi will be a similar script with Felix Lebrun as the higher seed facing an up and coming 18 year old star in Matsushima. Will the Final be between perennial Top 5 players who were former teen phenoms, or between the next generation of rising teen stars?
The top seeds started to fall earlier on the women’s side. World No. 2 Wang Manyu fell in the opening round, losing to Satsuki Odo 0-3. World No. 3 and World No. 4 both lost in the second round with Chen Xingtong losing to Shi Xunyao 3-1 and Zhu Yuling fell to Shin Yubin 3-1. World No. 1 Sun Yingsha made it to the Quarterfinals, but fell to Kuai Man 4-2. On Sunday, it will be Kuai Man against Wang Yidi in one all-Chinese Semi, and in the other half of the draw it will be Miwa Harimoto and Satsuki Odo in an all-Japanese Semi.
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