(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The top players in the world converged this week in Singapore, and a pair of Top Seeds left with the singles titles. Even across the doubles events, it was a good week for the highest profile athletes.
Wang Chuqin arrived in Singapore as the likely favorite, and he didn’t disappoint. Six wins against many of the best in the sport and he lost only two games. A 3-0 win over Luu, a 3-0 win over Togami, a 3-1 win over Lind, a 4-0 win over Woojin, a 4-1 win over Felix, and a 4-0 Finals victory over Lin Yun-Ju.
Most of the interesting story lines in the Men’s event came from upsets – as seeing World No. 8 Lin Yun-Ju reach the Final meant many other top ranked players fell prematurely. World No. 2 Hugo Calderano lost in the Round of 32 to Won Chun Ting, World No. 3 Lin Shidong fell to Felix Lebrun in the Quarters, World No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto lost to Patrick Franziska in the Round of 16, and World No. 5 Truls Moregard made the Top 4 before falling to Lin Yun-Ju in the Semis.
Obviously World No. 1 is even more secure today than it was before the event, but the point distributions get interesting for the next few slots in the World Rankings. Finishing second gives Lin Yun-Ju 1400 points which may move the World No. 8 up a slot or two (likely only up to No. 7). Felix and Truls each gain 900 points as Semifinalists. For Felix Lebrun, that brings him closer to the top 5, but likely doesn’t change his position (remaining at No. 6). Truls Moregard, however, should go up to 6740 – potentially jumping over three other players all the way to World No. 2.
Sabine Winter was the biggest story in the Women’s Draw – winning back to back matches over Zhu Yuling (World No. 4) and Wang Yidi (World No. 7). Winter’s run ended in the Semifinals today with Wang Manyu winning 4-1. The other Semifinal finished predictably as well with Sun Yingsha (World No. 1) dominating Chen Yi (World No. 8) 4-1. Sun Yingsha then won the Final 4-2, winning the first two games, and then splitting the final four.
Men’s Doubles didn’t go to the top seed, but it likely went to the best known pair. The top seeded Korea team of Lim and An fell in their opening match (in the Round of 16 after they had a first round bye). That helped clear the way for the Lebrun brothers to emerge from that half of the draw. The bottom half of the draw had a new Chinese pairing of Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng that fought through to the Final. And when those teams faced off, it was all Lebruns – winning three straight. Miwa Harimoto and Hina Hayata logged a strong performance on their way to the Women’s title that included a win over China’s Kuai Man and Chen Yi and a Finals win over Miyu Nagasaki of Japan and her partner Shin Yubin of Taipei. And the Mixed Doubles title went to Brazilian power couple Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahash with a 3-0 win over Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin of the Korea Republic.
The Tour’s next stop is the WTT Champions series event in Chongqing, China. All of the World’s Top 10 will be in action in another exciting event just 10 days from today.
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