(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld)
The top players in the world converged on Hong Kong this week for the WTT Finals. The 16 players in the draw mirrors the World Top 16 except that Darko Jorgic was unable to attend (replaced by World No. 17 Simon Gauzy). World No. 1 Wang Chuqin trailed 0-2 in his opening round match against Sora Matsushima, but he recovered – winning 4-3 (11-9 in the final game). World No. 2 Lin Shidong had a difficult first round opponent in World No. 7 Liang Jingkun, but Shidong had no difficulties at the table – winning the first game by a tight 15-13 score and then running the table for the 4-0 win.
World No. 3, Hugo Calderano, was an early casualty losing 4-2 to Felix Lebrun. The only other first round upset was in the match up between World No.12 and 13 with the slightly lower ranked Lin Yun-Ju topping Benedikt Duda 4-2.
The match-ups for the Quarterfinals are Wang Chuqin versus Alexis Lebrun, Truls Moregard versus Lin Yun-Ju, Tomokazu Harimoto versus Felix Lebrun, and Lin Shidong versus Xiang Peng. The players remaining are World No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 13.
On the Women’s side, they are already through to the Semifinals and only Chinese players remain. On Saturday, Sun Yingsha will face Kuai Man and in the other half of the draw it is Wang Manyu versus Chen Yi. Of those players, World No. 9 Chen Yi is the only surprise – after she defeated Zhu Yuling in the opening round, then Chen Xingtong in the Quarters.
The action continues on Saturday with the Finals on Sunday.
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