(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
After a week marked largely by upsets, the top remaining seeds took both singles titles at the WTT Champions series event in Montpellier. Sunday’s matches went fast with both Semifinals finishing 4-1, and the Final at 4-0. Japan’s Sora Matsushima won the early Semifinal in Men’s Singles outdistancing Jang Woojin. In the other half of the draw, Truls Moregard was dominant against Alexis Lebrun, dropping only game 3 in that 4-1 win.
The Final lacked much of the drama from earlier in the week with Moregard winning the first game 11-9, and never looking back. A 4-0 win, gives Moregard his second Series win. As important as the win was the $40,000 prize and 1000 ranking points. Those points won’t be enough to overtake Tomokazu Harimoto who is currently in fourth (and one space above Moregard), but it will more him much closer, and it will secure his spot above Jingkun and Felix Lebrun who are both close behind.
Wang Yidi was a clear favorite entering today’s Final. She had one of the toughest of paths to the Final going through Hina Hayata, Bruna Takahashi, and Miwa Harimoto and she had a 4-2 win over Joo Cheonhui in the Semifinals. Yidi faced Sabine Winter – and Winter won the first two games, and the fifth. That is, Yidi trailed 3 times in the match and needed to win games 6 and 7 to win – she did just that, with a 12-10 win to tie the match at 3-3, and then an 11-9 win in the seventh game to take the title.
The next stop on the Tour is WTT Champions Frankfurt that will begin on Tuesday. The draws have already been posted for Frankfurt with Hugo Calderano and Tomokazu Harimoto as the top two seeds. USA’s Kanak Jha will face Darko Jorgic on Tuesday evening. Other Tuesday matches include Lee Sang Su, Patrick Franziska, Anders Lind, and Tomokazu Harimoto.
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