(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
This week, Lagos, Nigeria was the host of a WTT Contender series event. The top seed won four of the five events. Anders Lind was one of those top seeds that prevailed – winning Men’s Singles. Lind finished 5-0, pushed in a 3-2 win over Iulian Chirita, then a pair of 3-1 wins over Dani and Geraldo, a 3-2 win over Lim Jonghoon, and a Finals 4-1 win over Oh Junsung. The other key matches was the upset of Thibault Poret (the second seed) by Manush Shah of India and the 3-1 Semifinal win over Shah by Oh Jungsung.
The top seed in Women’s Singles was Satsuki Odo who spread two lost games over five wins – a dominant performance finishing 16-2 (in games won/lost). Odo topped second seed Honoka Hashimoto 4-1 in an All-Japanese Final. Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles both went to the top seed as well. In Men’s Doubles, that victory went to Indian pair Manav Thakkar and Manush Shaw over Iulian Chirita and Andrei Istrate of Romania. The Mixed Doubles event also went to an Indian pair. This time it was Manush Shah teaming with Diya Chitale and they defeated a French pair 3-1 (Leo De Nodrest and Camille Lutz).
The one exception in Lago was in Women’s Doubles where a surprise team upset the seedings. The top seeded team of Hitomi Sato and Saki Shibata reached the final as expected (all 3-0 wins). However, the second seeded squad of Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale fell to an unexpected pairing. Korea Republic’s Joo Cheonhui paired with a strong doubles specialist from Japan named Reina Aso (who is a lesser known player overall, but a former doubles champion in the Japanaes Nationals). The two defeated the third seeded Batra/Das team in the Quarters and then came from down 0-2 to win the Semifinal match over Ghorpade/Chitale. In the final, they dropped the first game and then won three in a row over Sato and Shibata.
The next tour stop is Skopje in North Macedonia where a WTT Contender event is scheduled to start on June 1st. Currently, that event has Jorgic, Lind, Gauzy, Coton, and USA’s Jha as headliners on the Men’s side. The women’s draw will have Japanese players Odo and Hashimoto at the top and also Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and USA’s Lily Zhang.
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