(by Steve Hopkins)
All of the World’s Top 10 ranked men (and 8 of the Women’s Top 10) headline a massive $800,000 prize money event this week in Macao. Thirty two men and 32 women qualified to compete in the singles competitions. The draws were just released.
World No. 1 Fan Zhendong will face Wong Chun Ting in the opening round. USA’s Kanak Jha will face Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson. Chinese powerhouses Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan will face each other in the opening round. There’s a match up of popular Butterfly-sponsored players when Timo Boll and Lin Yun-Ju play on Thursday.
Looking further out, Ma Long could face Dang Qiu then Dimitrij Ovtcharov or Wang Chuqin just to get to the Quarterfinals. Harimoto and Truls Moregard could be a potential Quarterfinal matchup. And for Kanak Jha – winning his opening round would likely mean he would face Fan Zhendong in the Round of 16 (with the winner on course to face Darko Jorgic in the Quarters. There are no easy matches in this tournament.
On the Women’s side where the top Chinese and Japanese usually take turns filling the Quarterfinal slots, Sun Yingsha will be heavily favored through to the Semifinals. Lily Zhang is in the second bracket where Wang Manyu and Kasumi Ishikawa are the top seeds. Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz is in the third bracket where China’s Wang Yidi and both Germany’s strongest (Ying Han and Xiaona Shan( will be the favorites. And the bottom bracket will have Chen Meng and Mima Ito on course to face off in the Quarters.
Action starts in about 9 hours. Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long.
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