(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The world’s best converged on Macao for the ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cup, and going into Sunday, on the Top Four remain. In the top half of the draw, World No. 1 Wang Chuqin will face World No. 3 Hugo Calderano in a rematch of last year’s Semifinals at this same event. A year ago, Calderano surprised the world with a 4-3 Semifinals win over Chuqin before winning the Final over Lin Shidong. Calderano and Chuqin are the top two remaining seeds this year, so whoever wins tomorrow afternoon will enter the Final as the heavy favorite tomorrow evening. Could history repeat itself — or is another surprise lurking in the wings in Macao?
Calderano has had a great showing already this week. His 4-3 win over Shunsuke Togami in the Round of 16 was tight, but his dominant 4-0 win over Alexis Lebrun in the Quarterfinals should be the momentum he needs to enter the Semifinals with confidence. Chuqin, on the other hand, has been uncharacteristically pressed and tested. He twice trailed against Felix Lebrun in their Round of 16 4-2 win, and he was down 1-3 to Jorgic before fighting back for a 4-3 win. Chuqin is clearly the top player in the world, but he has worked harder this week than most of his recent tournaments – and he still has two big matches left to play.
In the bottom half of the draw, Saturday saw a pair of upsets. Harimoto fell to Lin Yun-Ju 4-1, and Truls Moregard never really found his stride in an 0-4 loss to Sora Matsushima. Both Matsushima and Yun-Ju have played great in recent events, so perhaps a run to the Semifinals is not unexpected for either – but toppling two of the top four seeds on the same day as both reach a Semifinal to face each other – definitely unexpected.
Action starts with the Semifinals Sunday afternoon and the Finals will follow tomorrow evening.
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