(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
After a five year retirement, 34 year old Fang Bo is making waves again professionally while playing for Kazakhstan. Today, with a ranking of just 160, Bo won the WTT Contender series event in Istanbul.
Chinese fans have seen Fang Bo in recent years as a table tennis announcer and livestreaming host. A decade ago, he was a solid player for China’s national team who regularly made deep runs at major events. His peak was the 2015 World Championships where he played all three teammates – beating Xu Xin and Zhang Jike before losing to Ma Long in the Final.
Today’s run in this Contender series event does not have the glitz of the World Championships, but it shows this 34 year old player may still have the ability to turn heads. Fang Bo won his first three matches 3-0 including wins over Mehdi Bouloussa (No. 70) of Algeria, China’s Chen Junsong (No. 89), and Lubomir Jancarik (No. 49) of Czechia. It then took a comeback to defeat Germany’s Ricardo Walther (No. 143) to reach the Final where he easily topped Kang Dongsoo (No. 120) of the Korea Republic. None of that seems terribly impressive in comparison to where Fang Bo was as a player a decade ago – but its a solid result and the 400 points he gets for first place likely moves him up the rankings all the way to No. 65.
Top seeded Honoka Hashimoto dominated Women’s Singles spreading just 3 lost games over her five wins. Hashimoto defeated Joo Cheonhui of the Korea Republic in the Final 4-1. Japan also won Women’s Doubles with Miyuu Kihara and Miu Hirano defeating Hashimoto and Nagasaki in the Final.
Men’s Doubles went to the top seeded Nikita Artemenko and Maksim Grebnev as the Russian pair was dominant from start to finish. Mixed Doubles had a surprise winner as Connor Green of England and Anna Hursey of Wales teamed up for a British Aisles title. The took out two Brazilian squads to get to the Semis where they eliminated the second seeded Korean Republic team of Lim Yunoh and Joo Cheonhui. In the final, Green/Hursey won 3-0 over Evgeny Tikhonov and Maria Panfilova.
The tour’s next stop is in Muscat for a Star Contender event. Darko Jorgic, Shunsuke Togami, and Dang Qiu are the top seeds on the men’s side when action starts tomorrow.
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