(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Six players in the World’s Top 10 competed this week in the WTT Champions Frankfurt, and all six fell to upsets before the final day. The top seed remaining on Sunday was Dang Qiu, and he had little trouble with Lee Sang Su, winning their Semifinal match 4-1. Sora Matsushima had a great run to the Semifinals, but he also benefitted from Dimitrij Ovtcharov upsetting Tomokazu Harimoto and from Kanak Jha upsetting Darko Jorgic. Matsushima did take out both Jha and Ovtcharov on his path to the Semifinals, and today he reached the Final by defeating Anders Lind 4-2.
In the Final, Matsushima and Qiu played five tight games with just a few points separating each. However, over and over, it was Matsushima closing out the games with precision – ultimately winning 4-1 (8, 13, -11, 16, 9). This is a statement win for the 18 year old Matsushima who adds 1000 ranking points to his total, moving him solidly into the World Top 10 (he should be No. 8 or No. 9 when the next rankings are released). This is also a big deal for Japan who has not had two players in the Top 10 since big names Koki Niwa and Jun Mizutani retired. In addition to Tomokazu Harimoto and the emergence of Sora Matsushima, Japan also has Shunsuke Togami, Yukiya Uda, and Hiroto Shinozuka all in the World Top 30.
Japan dominated the Women’s event. Mima Ito and Hina Hayata faced each other in one Semifinal (with Hayata winning). Miwa Harimoto topped Korea Republic’s Shin Yubin in the other Semifinal 4-2. In the end, it was Hayata jumping out to an early lead and then hanging on for the 4-3 win.
The tour takes a one week break with the next big event a WTT Star Contender series event in Muscat, Oman that starts in 8 days.
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