(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The tour stop this week was Berlin for a WTT Feeder series event. Sweden’s Elias Ranefur (World No. 36) was the top seed with Feng Yi-Hsin and Cedric Nuytinck as the other top seeds in Men’s Singles. Rogelio Castro of Mexico was the fifth seed and Edward Ly from Canada was the seventh highest seed, and Americans Nandan Naresh, Sid Naresh, and Bosman Botha were all a part of the North American contingent on the Men’s side.
Ranefur’s run was short lived, as he fell 2-3 to Kwon Hyuk of the Korea Republic in the second round. Kwon, who is an unranked 18 year old took full advantage of the upset – winning his Quarterfinal match over Christian Pletea 3-0, then winning his Semifinal match 3-2 over Marek Badowski, before defeating Ryuusei Kawakami 3-1 in the Final. Kawakami fell just short, but his storyline is just as remarkable. This 16 year old Japanese player took out the second seeded Feng Yi-Hsin in the Quarters, then topped the dangerous Izaac Quek in the Semifinals, before starting slow in the Final against Kwon. WTT Feeder events are designed to give young up and coming players (and older, often overlooked players) a chance to complete and thrive. Take note of both Kwon and Kawakami – table tennis fans are likely to see both of these young players again in the near future.
Nina Mittelham is from the small town of Willich, which is about as far away from Berlin as one can get (East to West) without leaving Germany. That said, this week Berlin surely felt like home for the top seed as she fought through five matches to get five wins and the title. We say “fight” because her performance included many tight matches. Mittelham’s Round of 16 win over Chen Min-Hsin of Taipei was a 3-2 win, she fell behind Rin Mende of Japan 0-2 before coming back to win that Semifinal bout 3-2, and was the Final followed the same script with Kotomi Omoda winning the first two games before winning three straight to take the title.
The North Americans had mixed success in Berlin. Sid Naresh won his opening round match before falling in the second round to eventual Semifinalist Quek Izaac. Nandan Naresh won his opener easily, but then fell to Badowski in a tight 1-3 match (Badowski reached the Semis as well). USA’s Botha entered the draw as a Qualifier and had a tough match-up (he was Badowski’s opening round match). Edward Ly of Canada fell to Cristan Pletea. Rogelio Castro of Mexico won a pair of matches but then also fell to Quek Izaac (in the Quarters). On the Women’s side, Jessica Reyes Lai won her opening match before falling in the second round to eventual Semifinalist Tsai Yun-En. USA’s Amy Wang fell 1-3 to France’s Nina Guo Zheng. Canada’s Mo Zhang lost her opening round match to Loy Ming Ying.
The next WTT Contender event on the tour is in Almaty, Kazakhstan in about a week, and the next major event is the WTT Champions Macao September 8-13. That Macao event will include all of the World’s Top 20 except for Jan Woojin (No. 10).
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