(by Steve Hopkins)
Sweden’s rising star Truls Moregard won the Men’s Singles event at the WTT Contender Budapest 2021. The top two seeds in the Men’s event were Liam Pitchford and Quadri Aruna – both fell in the Quarterfinals to the eventual Finalists. Moregard topped Aruna 3-2 (winning the first two games, losing the next two games, but then dominating the final game 11-2) and Kilian Ort of Germany pounded Pitchford 3-0. Neither Ort nor Moregard were expected to advance to the Final – as Skachkov and Dang Qiu were the next two seeds, and the field also included Benedikt Duda and Ruwen Filus and Fang Meng and Gnanasekaran – each of whom who is an experienced tournament player with solid successes in international or league play in 2021. But both Ort and Moregard pulled out close upset wins in the Semis as well with Moregard topping Dang Qiu 4-3 and Ort topping Tomas Polansky 4-3. In the final, it was Moregard (the 14th seed in the event) over the unseeded Ort 4-3.
In Women’s singles the top seed, Xiaoxin Yang dominated the event losing only 2 games in her five matches. Yang’s runner up in the Finals was more of a surprise as young Russian Elizabet Abraamian defeated second-seeded Polina Mikhailova 3-0 and then third-seeded Manika Batra 4-0 to get to the Final.
Men’s Doubles went to two young unseeded Germans, Tobias Hippler and Kilian Ort. Women’s Doubles went to the second seeded Madarasz/Pergel team who are from Budapest. And Mixed Doubles went to the Indian pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra.
The next WTT Star Contender event will be held in Doha next month. Visit ButterflyOnline.com for the latest table tennis news and scores.
