(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Group play concluded today at the ITTF Men’s and Women’s World Cup Macao. The Final 16 knockout round is now set, and we can turn our attention to the first round matchups that will be played on Thursday.
Lin Shidong will face Anton Kallberg – the two have faced each other twice before with Shidong winning both times (4-1 last November, and 3-2 last October). The winner of that match will face the winner of Simon Gauzy and Truls Moregard. The second quarter will see An Jaehyun versus Darko Jorgic and Shunsuke Togami versus Liang Jingkun with the subsequent winners facing off.
Just as both Swedes are in the top quarter of the draw, a pair of Japanese players are in the third quarter. Tomokazu Harimoto will face Feng Yi-Hsin and Hiroto Shinozuka will face Hugo Calderano – with the winners facing each other in the Quarters. Both German players to reach the Main Draw will face each other as Benedikt Duda and Dimitrij Ovtcharov play in their Round of 16 match. The final match is USA’s Kanak Jha and World No. 2 Wang Chuqin.
The Final 16 includes three Chinese players, three Japanese players, two Germans, two Swedes, and one each from France, Korea, Slovenia, Taipei, Brazil, and the USA.
The biggest upset thus far on the Women’s side is World No. 3 missing the Main Draw. When Wang Yidi faced off against France’s Jia Nan Yuan, Yidi only needed a 2-2 split to advance. Yidi began with a dominant 11-2 first game, but then faultered – losing a tight second game 8-11, and then falling behind early in the third and losing 5-11, and leaving all of the pressure for a fourth and final game that was tied 8-8 before Yidi missed three backhands in a row. Yuan advances, eliminating one of the tournament favorites from the draw.
A quick overview of the Women’s Draw had Sun Yingsha and Chen Xingtong both in the top half of the draw. The bottom half now has Wang Manyu and Kuai Man and Miwa Harimoto all in one section. Yuan faces Odo and Adriana Diaz faces Mima Ito with the winners facing off in the Quarters.
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