(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The world’s best converge on Macao for the ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cup. Matches start tomorrow (March 30) and run for a full week – ending next Sunday. Two of the biggest stories a year ago at this event was Kanak Jha’s amazing run to the final 16 and Hugo Calderano becoming the first ever Pan American Champion. What are the amazing stories that will emerge this year – we’ll see soon as action starts on Monday.
The top seed is Wang Chuqin and and he will have Australia’s Finn Luu and Eduard Ionescu in his round robin. Truls Moregard heads Group 2 with Manav Thakkar and Park Ganghyeon. Hugo Calderano could have a test in Group 3 with Kristian Karlsson as the second seed in the group. Harimoto, Lin Yun-Ju, Matsushima, Felix Lebrun, Woojin, Jingkun, Alexis Lebrun, Duda, Dang Qiu, Jorgic, Lind, Ruibo, and Franziska each is top seed in a group.
Some big names are missing this week with late withdrawals from Lin Shidong, Xiang Peng, and Jonathan Groth. For those that are competing, there are a number of interesting matchups in the groups with Franziska and Zhou Qihao are in the same group, Wen Ruibo and Simon Gauzy are paired in the same group, Togami and Lind are together, Liang Jingkun and Ovtcharov are in the same group, and Felix Lebrun will have to get past Anton Kallberg.
Lots of action on tap all week — tune in for regular update.
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