(by Steve Hopkins)
Zagreb was host to this week’s tour stop as the WTT Contender series visited Croatia. Lin Shidong was the top men’s seed, but he didn’t make it past the second round – losing 2-3 to Chen Junsong. Dang Qiu, the second seed, reached the Semifinals where he fell to Lim Jonghoon. Only Chen Yuanyu made a deep run among the Chinese contingent with Xiang Peng falling in the opening round to Park Ganghyeon, Wen Ruibo falling in the second round to Hiroto Shinozuka – only Chen Yuanyu reached the Semis.
Ultimately, the big story of the Men’s event is how well Korean players performed. Park Ganghyeon took out Xiang Peng before losing in the Quarters, and Lim Jonghoon upset Dang Qiu to reach the Final, and An Jaehyun upset Chen Yuanyu to reach the Final. This left an All-Korea Republic final which Lim Jonghoon won over An Jaehyun 4-2. Lim Jonghoon continued his great week by also adding a Men’s Doubles crown. He teamed with Oh Junsung and the pair took out the second seed (Ruibo/Licen) in the Semis and then the top seed (Shidong/Youzheng) in the Final.
In Women’s Singles, Miwa Harimoto was the top seed, and she won three matches before dropping a single game. Ultimately, Miwa won the Semifinal match over Satsuki Odo 3-1, and then took the title with a 4–3 win over Zhu Yuling. Zhu had a similar run – entering as the second seed, and then winning 3-1, 3-0, 3-1, 3-1 on her way to the Final. Harimoto had a fast start in the Final, winning the first three games. However, Zhu slowly reeled her in, winning the fourth game 11-9, the fifth game 11-9, and the tying sixth game 11-7. The deciding game went 12-10 to Miwa Harimoto.
Like Jonghoon, Miwa doubled up with a second title. She and partner Satsuki Odo spread three lost games over four matches and won the Final 3-0 over Lee and Choi of the Korea Republic.
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