(by Steve Hopkins)
Action opens in the main draw of the Singapore Smash on Sunday, but eight players have already fought through qualifiers, with each placed in a grouping of 8, and needing to win three matches to reach the draw.
The qualifiers are a mix of future stars and aging players (all pressing to reach or regain the upper echelon of the ITTF Rankings). The top seed in the first qualifier was 19 years old Chinese player Chen Yuanyu, fresh off of his WTT tour win. A week ago, the dangerous teen defeated Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Tomokazu Harimoto as he took the top prize in Muscat, Oman. This week, Yuanyu has already dominated Olah, Nuytinck, and Habesohn – and he’ll face Marcelo Aguirre in the Main Draw on Sunday.
USA’s Jinbao Ma won his opening match before losing a 2-0 lead, falling to Manav Thakkar of India. Thakkar also defeated Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez and Taipei’s Liao Cheng-Ting on his way to advancing. Mattias Falck lost 3-1 to another young Chinese player, Huang Youzheng – with Youzheng advancing. Eduard Ionescu, Iulian Chirita, Milosz Redzimski, and Wong Chun Ting were the remaining qualifiers. Other players from our region that did not advance included Sid Naresh who fell to Kristian Karlsson, Nandan Naresh who lost to Lubomir Jancarik, and Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador who lost to Panagiotis Gionis.
What awaits the qualifiers in their opening round matches Sunday and Monday? Twenty four of the World’s ITTF Top 25. There are some Wild Card entries, and those include USA’s Kanak Jha, and Edward Ly of Canada.
Wang Chuqin is in a part of the draw where he is likely to face Anton Kallberg and either Patrick Franziska or Darko Jorgic just to reach the Semifinals. Liang Jingkun, Felix Lebrun, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Benedikt Duda are all paired together in one fourth of the draw. Truls Moregard, Dang Qiu, and Tomokazu Harimoto are all in the same fourth of the draw (a section that includes Kanak Jha). And the final quarter includes Lin Shidong, Simon Gauzy, Lin Yun-Ju, and Hugo Calderano.
In the Women’s Qualifiers, USA’s Sally Moyland ran off consecutive wins over Lupulesku, Chitale, and Rakovac on her way to the Main Draw. USA’s Jiangshan Guo lost to Giogia Piccolin. USA’s Jessica Reyes Lai and Canada’s Ivy Liao each lost heartbreakers after being up 2-0 before losing three tight games.
In the Main Draw Sun Yingsha and Miwa Harimoto could face each other in one Quarterfinal, Wang Yidi and Mima Ito are both in the second quarter (along with USA’s Amy Wang, Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, and Canada’s Mo Zhang). Keeping with the same China v. Japan theme, Its Chen Xingtong and Hina Hayata as top seeds in the third quarter of the draw – and USA’s Lily Zhang faces Singapore’s Ser Lin Qian in that same section. And the top two seeds in the final section are China’s Wang Manyu, and Japan’s Satsuki Odo – in the section of the draw that includes USA’s Sally Moyland and her match against Taipei’s Chien Tung-Chuan.
Lots of action on tap this week with Finals scheduled for next weekend.
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