LAS VEGAS, NEVADA Dec 12-17: Japan’s Kenji Matsudaira and Slovakia’s Thomas Keinath head the seedings in the Men’s Singles at the 2016 US Open Table Tennis Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada, which will put a display of world class table tennis on show at an event attracting over 800 entries from over 40 different countries. While Keinath, the 2009 and 2011 US Open Champion is at the top of the seeding list on US Rating, it is Matsudaira who’s World Ranking of 82 at the time of entry puts him at the head of proceedings. Matsudaira reached a peak World Rank of 34th in 2012, while Keinath was also at the same time in his prime at 51st in the World.
They will have their work cut out for them as all of the top 10 seeded players are rated higher than 2700 and include the likes of former Chinese National team member Hou Yingchao, 2014 US Open Champion Tao Wenzhang and 2016 US Olympians Feng Yijun and Kanak Jha among a host of strong Chinese players. One of the dark horses in the event is 4th seed Wang Wei who formerly represented Malta and was ranked in the top 100 players in the world and has seldom lost on US soil.
With 158 entries in the Men’s draw there promises to be some fierce competition come Finals Night at The Foundry hosted at the SLS Las Vegas Hotel!
Top 10 Men’s Rating Seedings
(No.1: Matsudaira, Kenji (World Ranking))
Keinath, Thomas (2775)
Aida, Satoshi (2764)
Wang, Wei (2752)
Zhang, Bohan (2746)
Hou, Yingchao (2735)
Tao, Wenzhang (2730)
Chen, Bob (2726)
Feng, Yijun (2713)
Chen, Ruichao (2706)
Jha, Kanak (2704)
World Number 7 and 2016 World Cup Finalist Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei is the dominant contender in the Women’s Singles Event but she will face challenge from a small handful of unranked Japanese opponents and also 2016 Olympic Team member Jiaqi Zheng who is the highest US rated player in the event. Zheng recently competed in the Swedish Open where she upset 2013 European Champion Li Fen.
2016 Olympians Yadira Silva from Mexico and young Puerto Rican star Adriana Diaz also enter the rankings of the Women’s singles event which will no doubt provide high speed entertainment and rapid-fire rallies.
Top 10 Women’s Rating Seedings
(No.1: Cheng, I-Ching (World Ranking))
Zheng, Jiaqi (2601)
Xu, Nuo (2566)
Takahashi, Yume (2543)
Zha, Wenting (2527)
Ichikawa, Azusa (2525)
Wang, Huijing (2525)
Zhang, Yanfang (2492)
Li, Ruini (2492)
Chi, Ge (2466)
Diaz-Gonzalez, Adriana (2444)
The U.S Citizens Open is topped by three Rio Olympians, could we see a repeat of this year’s big National Men’s Final if Feng Yijun and Kanak Jha hold their seedings? Or could Jiaqi Zheng put the women’s game in the headlines by overcoming a strong male field. One thing is for sure, with over 90 events for all levels and ages, there will be great table tennis to be seen throughout the week, especially at the Finals Celebration at The Foundry on the evening of Friday December 16!
